The Poetry of Tennyson - 9 - Idylls of the KIng torrent

The complete 'Idylls of the King' of Alfred Tennyson narrated by Charlton Griffin.

Though not the great summation of his career, (as Paradise Lost was that of Milton's) The Idylls nevertheless is a rich medieval tapestry with attractive pre-raphaelite colouring, told in a strong, masculine style and containing some of Tennyson's best poetry.

Fatedness is spun out in a resonant and idiosyncratic style conscious of its own untimely exhortations - 'backwards looking and forwards boding', the plight of individual consciousness in a setting of sexual neurosis, religious craving and utilitarian rationalism. A gradual loss of innocence, virtue and energy ends in a death white mist of confusion, moral uncertainty and earthly disorder.