The present book has grown out of lectures delivered on Tennyson at Indian Colleges and Universities. It attempts a detailed analytical survey of imagery and its aesthetic significance in his work. Stray and casual references to the character and import of his imagery are made in inter-chapters of several critical works, but so far there has been no comprehensive study of the topic. The subject is too wide in its scope for a single chapter in any specialised book or treatise; hence the need and justification for its separate treatment. The purpose of the treatise is to provide all it can to fill in this noticeable lacuna in English literary criticism.
Its more particular aim is to analyse and assess how Tennyson works out imagery and how far his predecessors have exerted a decisive influence upon his art. To probe this influence, especially of the Romantics, has been its objective throughout. Besides, it seeks to ascertain and evaluate what it is that distinguishes the Victorian's imagery from what goes before and marks it out as a class apart.
I do not claim that the dissertation can afford anything of the pleasure one derives from poetry itself. I am alive to limitations of my commentary upon the subject, yet it will serve the purpose of refreshing memories apt to get some-what rusty for want of frequent and intimate contacts with Tennyson's poetry. This book, actually, purports to be a convenient aid to the understanding of his imagery and of the poet himself not so much as man but more as an artist. His personality has not been overlooked, but I have been more concerned to explore and sort out the aesthetic rose-garden of his imagery. The facts dealt with here and there, though all might have come easy to an educated and cultured individual of the epoch, may not be so easy to a reader of our times.
To count and classify innumerable Tennysonian images is more than arduous, since more often than not we cannot be sure whether what is considered is an image or not; if so, whether it is a single image standing by itself or a mingling of two or more. I have endeavoured to throw new light on the poet's creative genius by showing through many well-chosen examples the progressive stages of his use of imagery in relation to his style and themes. The method employed right through is both organic and historical, but the aim all along has been to elucidate his craftsmanship. Neither the historical method nor the systematic classification of images is deemed very appropriate to my plan and purpose. Typical examples have been cited in plenty with a view to gauging the general line of development of the artist's imagery.
I have also attempted to bring out his merits which, I feel, have not been sufficiently admired, and to shed whatever fresh light I can on them. The result is the first elaborate study of Tennysonian imagery considered to be an integral part of the growth of his art. I do not pretend to add to our historical knowledge, but what I have dished out is a piece of research going further than printed sources. In sum, it is hoped that it will help readers, within its scope, to approach the subject in general and the variety of imagery in particular from a fresh angle and with an added relish.
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