La col·lecció Acervo continua difonent el patrimoni estètic de les cultures antigues amb un àlbum il·lustrat infantil dedicat a la cultura celta, a partir de l'estètica de les seves arts decoratives.
Alfred Tennyson (1809-1892) was born in Lincolnshire and educated at Trinity College, Cambridge. The death of his close friend Arthur Hallam moved him to write In Memoriam (1850). In the same year he was appointed Poet Laureate and was elevated to the peerage as Baron Tennyson in 1884. He is buried in Poet's Corner in Westminster Abbey.
Alfred, Lord Tennyson was a more complex writer than his status as Queen Victoria's favorite poet might suggest. Though capable of rendering rapture and delight in the most exquisite verse, in another mode Tennyson is brother in spirit to Poe and Baudelaire, the author of dark, passionate reveries. And though he treasured poetic tradition, his work nevertheless engaged directly with the great issues of his time, from industrialization and the crisis of faith to scientific progress and women's rights. A master of the short, intense lyric, he can also be sardonic, humorous, voluptuous, earthy, and satirical. This collection includes, of course, such famous poems as "The Lady of Shalott" and "The Charge of the Light Brigade." There are extracts from all the major masterpieces--"Idylls of the King," "The Princess," "In Memoriam"--and several complete long poems, such as "Ulysses" and "Demeter and Persephone," that demonstrate his narrative grace. Finally, there are many of the short lyrical poems, such as "Come into the Garden, Maud" and "Break, Break, Break," for which he is justly celebrated.
Based on Malory's "Morte d'Arthur", the "Idylls" (written between 1833 and 1869) tell the classic story of Arthur's struggle to maintain order and preserve his kingdom in the face of monumental upheavals, including civil war, his wife's adultery with his best friend, and betrayals by his once-close associates. Arthur's last soliloquy before he dies and is carried off in the "dusky barge" to Avalon, where great heroes find eternal life, includes the lines, "The old order changeth, yielding place to new,/And God fulfills himself in many ways..." The poem's last lines are, "And the new sun rose ...
