Maud, and Other Poems

by Alfred Lord Tennyson, Mint Editions (Contribution by)

Overview

Maud, and Other Poems (1850) is a collection of poems by British poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson. The first work Tennyson published after becoming Poet Laureate in 1850, Maud, and Other Poems contains several of the poet’s most celebrated works. “Maud,” the title poem, is a narrative that explores themes of forbidden romance, marriage, death, and mourning. “The Charge of the Light Brigade,” originally published in The Examiner in 1854, was written as a tribute to the British Light Cavalry Brigade, which led an ill-fated charge at the Battle of Balaclava during the Crimean War.

“Maud” follows a young poet who, after the tragic loss of his father, falls in love with the beautiful Maud. Despite his honorable intentions, the narrator is thwarted by Maud’s brother, who wants his sister to marry a wealthy businessman. When the brother takes a brief trip to London, the young poet uses the opportunity to court Maud in earnest. But time is not on his side, and the brother returns to throw a ball in order to introduce the businessman to his sister. As his chance at love erodes, the poet makes a desperate choice and risks losing everything—love, home, and life itself. “The Charge of the Light Brigade” is a tribute to the British casualties at the Battle of Balaclava during the Crimean War. Tennyson’s patriotic narrative poem addresses the controversy surrounding the charge, which took place because of a mistaken order and sent hundreds of British cavalrymen in a doomed head-on assault on a well-fortified Russian line of defense.

This edition of Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s Maud, and Other Poems is a classic of English literature reimagined for modern readers.

Since our inception in 2020, Mint Editions has kept sustainability and innovation at the forefront of our mission. Each and every Mint Edition title gets a fresh, professionally typeset manuscript and a dazzling new cover, all while maintaining the integrity of the original book.

With thousands of titles in our collection, we aim to spotlight diverse public domain works to help them find modern audiences. Mint Editions celebrates a breadth of literary works, curated from both canonical and overlooked classics from writers around the globe.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781513270807
Publisher:	Mint Editions
Publication date:	01/05/2021
Series:	Mint Editions (Poetry and Verse)
Pages:	82
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 8.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809-1892) was a British poet. Born into a middle-class family in Somersby, England, Tennyson began writing poems with his brothers as a teenager. In 1827, he entered Trinity College, Cambridge, joining a secret society known as the Cambridge Apostles and publishing his first book of poems, a collection of juvenile verse written by Tennyson and his brother Charles. He was awarded the Chancellor’s Gold Medal in 1829 for his poem “Timbuktu” and, in 1830, published Poems Chiefly Lyrical, his debut individual collection. Following the death of his father in 1831, Tennyson withdrew from Cambridge to care for his family. His second volume of poems, The Lady of Shalott (1833), was a critical and commercial failure that put his career on hold for the next decade. That same year, Tennyson’s friend Arthur Hallam died from a stroke while on holiday in Vienna, an event that shook the young poet and formed the inspiration for his masterpiece, In Memoriam A.H.H. (1850). The poem, a long sequence of elegiac lyrics exploring themes of loss and mourning, helped secure Tennyson the position of Poet Laureate, to which he was appointed in 1850 following the death of William Wordsworth. Tennyson would hold the position until the end of his life, making his the longest tenure in British history. With most of his best work behind him, Tennyson continued to write and publish poems, many of which adhered to the requirements of his position by focusing on political and historical themes relevant to the British royal family and peerage. An important bridge between Romanticism and the Pre-Raphaelites, Tennyson remains one of Britain’s most popular and influential poets.

Read an Excerpt

THE LETTERS. Still on the tower stood the vane, A black yew gloom'd the stagnant air, I peer'd athwart the chancel pane And saw the altar cold and bare. A clog of lead was round my feet, A band of pain across my brow; ' Cold altar, Heaven and earth shall meet Before you hear my marriage vow." I 2 I turn'd and humm'd a bitter song That mock'd the wholesome human heart, And then we met in wrath and wrong, We met, but only meant to part. Full cold my greeting was and dry; She faintly smiled, she hardly moved ; I saw with half-unconscious eye She wore the colours I approved. She took the little ivory chest, With half a sigh she turn'd the key, Then raised her head with lips comprest, And gave my letters back to me. And gave the trinkets and the rings, My gifts, when gifts of mine could please ; As looks a father on the things Of his dead son, I look'd on these. She told me all her friends had said ; I raged against the public liar ; She talk'd as if her love were dead, But in my words were seeds of fire. ' No more of love ; your sex is known : m I never will be twice deceived. Henceforth I trust the man alone, The woman cannot be believed. ' Thro' slander, meanest spawn of Hell (And women's slander is the worst), And you, whom once I loved so well, Thro' you, my life will be accurst.' I spoke with heart, and heat and force, I shook her breast with vague alarms Like torrents from a mountain source We rush'd into each other's arms. We parted: sweetly gleam'd the stars, And sweet the vapour-braided blue, Low breezes fann'd the belfry bars, As homeward by the church I drew. The very graves appear'd to smile, So fresh they rose in shadow'd swells ; ' Dark porch ' I said ' and silentaisle There ...