The poet's reputation has weathered even the most vitriolic attempts to discredit both the man and his writings; and as criticism of the late twentieth century demonstrates, Tennyson's claim to pre-eminence among the Victorians is now unchallenged."

Here is an analysis of Tennyson's major poetry that clarifies the poet's relationship to the artistic traditions he so extensively exploited and so radically modified. It is a portrait of Tennyson as manipulator, not mere borrower, of forms. Tennyson and Tradition traces the threads that at the same time unite Tennyson's work and tie it to the traditions the poet believed he had inherited. Pattison shows why Tennyson considered the venerable idyll form a fitting vehicle for his modern portraits--above all the Idylls of the King. Analysis of In Memoriam brings further understanding of Tennyson's poetic credo.