Alfred Tennyson had a life-long interest in the legend of King Arthur, and after the huge success of his poem Morte d'Arthur he built on the theme with this series of twelve poems, written in two periods of intense creativity over nearly twenty years.

Idylls of the King traces the story of Arthur's rule, from his first encounter with Guinevere and his quest for the Holy Grail, to the adultery of his Queen with Launcelot and the King's death in a final battle that spells the collapse of his kingdom.

Told with dreamlike eloquence, Tennyson's depiction of the Round Table reflects a yearning for a long-past age of valor and chivalry.

In his descriptions of King Arthur he created a hero filled with the values of the Victorian age—one who embodies the highest ideals of manhood and kingship.

ALFRED TENNYSON (1809-1892) was Poet Laureate of Great Britain and Ireland during much of Queen Victoria's reign and remains one of the most popular British poets. T. S. Eliot famously described Tennyson as "the saddest of all English poets", whose technical mastery of verse and language provided a "surface" to his poetry's "depths, unto the very abyss of sorrow".