ad been attained,
and to the development of which the band of poets of
the preceding generation had largely contributed.

A review of the volume, by John Stuart Mill, then a young man
not yet twenty-five years of age, was published in `The Westminster'
for January, 1831. It bears testimony to the writer's fine insight
and sure foresight; and it bears testimony, too, to his high estimate
of the function of poetry in this world--an estimate, too,
in kind and in degree, not older than this present century.
The review is as important a landmark in the development
of poetical criticism, as are the two poems I have mentioned,
in the development of poetical ideals, in the nineteenth century.

In the concluding paragraph of the review, Mill says: "A genuine poet
has deep responsibilities to his country and the world, to the present
and future generations, to earth and heaven. He, of all men,
should have distinct and worthy objects before him,
and consecrate himself to their promotion. It is thus that he
best consults the glory of his art, and his own lasting fame. . . .
Mr. Tennyson knows that "the poet's mind is holy ground";
he knows that the poet's portion is to be

"Dower'd with the hate of hate, the scorn of scorn,
The love of love";

he has shown, in the lines from which we quote, his own
just conception of the grandeur of a poet's destiny;
and we look to him for its fulfilment. . . . If our estimate
of Mr. Tennyson be correct, he too is a poet; and many years hence
may be read his juvenile description of that character with
the proud consciousness that it has become the description and history
of his own works."

Two years later, that is, in 1832 (the volume, however,
is antedated 1833), appeared `Poems by Alfred Tennyson', pp. 163.
In it were contained `The Lady of Shalott', and the untitled poems,
known by their first lines, `You ask me why, tho' ill at ease',
`Of old sat Freedom on the Heights', and `Love thou thy Land,
with Love far brought'.

In `The Lady of Shalott' is mystically shadowed forth the relation
which poetic genius should sustain to the world for whose
spiritual redemption it labors, and the fatal consequences
of its being seduced by the world's temptations, the lust of the flesh,
and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.

The other poems, `You ask me why', `Of old sat Freedom',
and `Love thou thy land', are important as exponents of what
may be called the poet's in