From first to last Alfred Tennyson has recognized that the mission of the poet is that of an æsthetic teacher. Much has he done to educate English-speaking people in the appreciation of beauty. But he is emphatically more than this. A man of stainless reputation, his deeds and words have almost invariably been on the side of righteousness. His career has been free from the excesses which disgraced the lives of Marlowe and Shelley, of Byron and Poe. He is rather to be ranged with the Spensers and Miltons, the Wordsworths and Brownings, as a defender of truth and religion. In the main he has steadfastly kept in mind the austere ideal-- Of those who, far aloof From envy, hate and pity, and spite and scorn, Live the great life which all our greatest fain Would follow, center'd in eternal calm. II. The current of Tennyson's genius is like a rivulet placidly flowing through meadows and groves, occasionally rippling and swirling over stones, then pursuing its even course--gradually widening and deepening; not like a mighty river proudly sweeping in a resistless flood through a wilderness, or tumbling down rocky chasms. All that he has given the world during sixty years of literary activity is contained in less than a dozen volumes of verse. Only a rapid survey of his poetical career is attempted here. Passing by without comment _Poems by two Brothers_ (1826), "The Lover's Tale" (composed about 1828), and "Timbuctoo" (1829), we come to Tennyson's first bid for fame in _Poems, chiefly Lyrical_ (1830). This slender volume included (along with much rubbish) a few pieces which are perennial favorites with lovers of Tennyson, viz.: "Mariana," "Recollections of the Arabian Nights," "The Dying Swan," "A Dirge," "Love and Death," and "Circumstance." Among the poems suppressed in later editions is one in an unusual vein--"Nero to Leander"--which Emerson inserted in his _Parnassus_. His second book of _Poems_ (1833) was a more ambitious venture. Its contents, though marred by faults of crude taste, possessed in a marked degree, the characteristic qualities of the Laureate's poetry. Nearly all of the lyrics in it have been found worthy of a permanent place in the collected editions of his poems, but most of them underwent countless changes before they were republished in 1842--being corrected and polished till they were well-nigh perfect from a critical standpoint. The two volumes of _Poems_ (1842) revealed Tennyson at his best--a mature singer whose dignified, harmonious verse compares favorably with the most splendid contributions to British poetry. "The Princess" (1847), "In Memoriam" (1850), and "Maud" (1855) made his position secure as the greatest of living poets.