Idylls of the King

What It's About

Idylls of the King is a cycle of twelve narrative poems retelling the legend of King Arthur, told in blank verse and dedicated to the memory of Prince Albert. The sequence follows Arthur from the founding of his court at Camelot and the establishment of the Round Table, through the deeds of knights such as Gareth, Geraint, Lancelot, and Galahad, to the gradual unravelling of his kingdom. Tennyson drew chiefly on Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur and the Mabinogion, reshaping and expanding the material into his own vision of the legend, written and published in stages between 1859 and 1885.

Key Concepts

The poems trace an arc from idealism to decay, using Arthur's court as a symbol for the fragility of any attempt to build a perfect society. Recurring themes include chivalry and its limits, the tension between duty and personal desire, and the corrosive effects of betrayal and moral compromise on a community that depends on trust. Many readers have also seen the collapse of Arthur's kingdom as an allegory for Tennyson's own Victorian era, reflecting anxieties about faith, progress, and social order.

About the Author

Alfred Tennyson (1809–1892) was an English poet who served as Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom from 1850 until his death, making him one of the most prominent literary figures of the Victorian age. Born in Somersby, Lincolnshire, the son of a clergyman, he was educated at Cambridge, where he formed a close friendship with Arthur Hallam whose early death profoundly shaped his later writing. He was raised to the peerage as Baron Tennyson in 1884.