Great Regulars: Robert Frost asserted that Tennyson's track

of "effects in assonance" was "the wrong track." FR Leavis pounced with typical ferocity, in New Bearings in English Poetry (1932), charging Tennyson with a cult of the "poetical," seeing his work as representing a dream world. Even WH Auden, in one of his less inspired moments, called Tennyson "undoubtedly the stupidest" of English poets. Thank goodness that recent critics, such as Christopher Ricks and Herbert F Tucker, have stepped forward with sharp and persuasive critical readings that reveal the subtlety and depth of Tennyson's massive body of work.

from Jay Parini: The Guardian: Tennyson remains essential reading

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