Poetic and Dramatic Works of Alfred Lord Tennyson, The

Boston & New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1929. ’Tis better to have loved and lost"

TENNYSON, Alfred Lord. Poetic and Dramatic Works. Boston & New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1929. 

Large paper edition, limited to 500 numbered copies (of which this is number 84).

Seven octavo volumes (8 3/4 x 5 5/8 inches; 222 x 150 mm.). Each volume with a hand-finished color photogravure frontispiece. Illustrated throughout with plates from photographs of “the Tennyson Country” by Charles S. Olcott.

Publisher's three-quarter green morocco over green cloth boards, ruled in gilt. Spines with five shallow (truncated) raised bands, decoratively tooled and lettered in gilt, top edge gilt, others uncut, green endpapers. Bookplate of George and Betty Davis on front paste-down. Spines uniformly faded - still a fine set.

Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson (1809–1892), was an English poet and Poet Laureate during much of Queen Victoria's reign. He gained early recognition with Timbuktu (1829) and Poems, Chiefly Lyrical (1830), which included enduring works like "Claribel" and "Mariana." His medieval imagery influenced the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.

Renowned for both short lyrics and blank verse, his notable poems include "The Charge of the Light Brigade," "Ulysses," In Memoriam A.H.H. (mourning his friend Arthur Hallam), and Idylls of the King. Though he attempted drama, his plays found little success.

Tennyson’s works introduced many famous phrases into English, such as "’Tis better to have loved and lost" and "To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield." He remains one of the most quoted writers in The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations. (Inventory #: 06149)