HARVARD COPYRIGHT, 1904, BY AMERICAN BOOK COMPANY. ENTERED AT STATIONERS' HALL, LONDON. IDYLLS OF THF KING. E. P. 6 PREFACE THIS book is meant for readers who are at the gateway of English Literature. I have tried to do my work as editor in a way which will not hide the poems, but help to show what they mean and why they are good to read. Poetry is made to give us joy, not pain. The true way to teach poetry is to keep the sense of it, and the beauty of it, and the music of it, in the foreground, and all the learned notes and curious comments in the background. The two things most needed in our preparatory English work, just now, are simplicity and thoroughness. Only enough of the life of Tennyson is told here to give a picture of the man, and to make clear how he came to write these poems. Only enough about the main plan of the Idylls of the King is said here to show the place of these three idylls in the epic. Only enough notes are added to explain difficulties and point out things that are interesting. If any of the notes seem to lead away from the poem instead of throwing light upon it, I advise the teacher to skip them. The text, spelling, and punctuation are those which Tennyson gave in his last revision of his work. HENRY VAN DYKE. |