Customer Reviews

Idylls of the King and a Selection of Poems (Signet classics)

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After many, many years of good intentions I finally read Tennyson's Idylls of the King. What a pleasure and delight. The poetry is impressive, and the depiction of the Round Table is epochal. I have also compared it to some of Mallory. While Mallory established the standard for the Arthurian legend (in English, at any rate), Tennyson's poetry is far more impressive. The stories themselves seem more impressive in Tennyson's sure hands. Unfortunately, I also made the mistake of watching "Camelot" on video recently; what a travesty. Guenevere is referred to as Ginny, Sir Lancelot is called Lance, and the over-all Hollywood approach is debasing and embarrassing. One could be turned off from Camelot forever as a result of this atrocious film. Let us give praise for Alfred Lord Tennyson's Idylls of the King. It is magnificent!

Length:: 7:15 Mins

Tennyson has been tried by me in this, my first reading of him since a schoolboy, and, sadly, found seiously wanting indeed. Most every one of his poems is infused with a Victorian cant that emarrasses one. - Yet, the idea of Qink Arthur's court, drawing mortal men into a realm that is in the world but not of it, remains enchanting, if poorly executed. The passage I have chosen to read conveys this notion of enchantment better than any other in Tennyson's Idylls.