From the back cover: "When Tennyson presented this poem to his Queen, Victoria was ruler over the world's greatest empire, an empire on which the sun never set. There is implicit in the poem a warning that even the perfect King and the perfect Kingdom connot survive the loss of faith. The unity of the Round Table broke down under the evil influence of Mordred and Arthur lives to see the end of his dream."

Mailed today to kz4ufo.

I just received this wonderful copy of Idylls of the King in the mail. Thank you!

And especially thank you for the beautiful postcard!

Thank you so much, hootnoodle!

The above picture is the area where I live.

I really enjoyed reading this again
and look forward to re-reading it.

I know that Tennyson's work is an acquired reading taste.
If it wasn't for John William Waterhouse's paintings,
I probably would never have started reading it.

The excerpt below is from Tennyson
about the Lady of Shalott.
A woman cursed, who can only watch the world
from a reflection (a mirror opposite a window)
yet falls in love with Sir Lancelot
from a watching him out her tower.
My favorite works by Tennyson and Waterhouse.

A longdrawn carol, mournful, holy,
She chanted loudly, chanted lowly,
Till her eyes were darken'd wholly,
And her smooth face sharpen'd slowly,
Turn'd to tower'd Camelot:
For ere she reach'd upon the tide
The first house by the water-side,
Singing in her song she died,
The Lady of Shalott.

--- Tennyson The Lady of Shalott

The picture above is the Lady of Shalott on a boat
by John William Waterhouse.

Thanks again for sending it my way, hootnoodle.
I will make sure that it is passed on
to someone who appreciates it.

I am RAKing this to fellow BookCrosser fruitbat next week. She enjoyed some of Tennyson's other work and has yet to read this one.

received today from kz4ufo -- thanks so much for it and for the found art as well! It will probably take me awhile to read, as I tend to have to read poetry in fairly small bites, but I'm sure I shall enjoy it.