A century ago Tennyson had begun to be dismissed as a poet whose work embodied everything the modern world was looking to leave behind. He still seems to readers to embody the substance of the Victorian era more fully than any other poet-but nowadays that is again counted in his favour. Critics continue to find layers of complexity in poems once thought simplistic-while appreciating with fresh ears Tennyson's aural mastery.

This new edition includes the two long poems "In Memoriam" and "Maud: A Monodrama" in their entirety, all the short poems for which Tennyson remains famous and a...