Idylls of the King

Idylls of the King, published between 1859 and 1885, is a cycle of twelve narrative poems by the English poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–1892) which retells the legend of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table, their court at Camelot and the quest for the Holy Grail, Arthur's love for Queen Guinevere and her tragic betrayal of him with Lancelot, and the rise and fall of Arthur's kingdom. Each idyll features one or more of Arthur's knights, including Lancelot, Galahad, Tristan, and Gawain, as well as other characters such as Elaine of Astolat, Queen Iseult of Cornwall, and Vivien. They recount Arthur's attempt to unite lawless Britain and create a perfect chivalric kingdom, from his coming to power with the help of Merlin, the Lady of the Lake, and the sword Excalibur to his mortal wounding at the hands of the traitor Mordred and his mystical passing to Avalon. The twelve idylls follow the progression of the seasons through the year, with Arthur crowned in spring, Guinevere embracing Lancelot in summer, Camelot decaying in autumn, and Arthur fighting Mordred in midwinter. They do not form an epic in structure or tone, but express elegiac sadness, in the style of the Idylls of Theocritus, at the gradual corruption and disintegration of Arthur's realm. Written in blank verse while Tennyson was Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom, and dedicated to the late Albert, Prince Consort, the Idylls contain many of his most resonant lines, including "Clothed in white samite, mystic, wonderful," and "The old order changeth, yielding place to new." Despite Arthur's faith that "the whole round earth is every way / Bound by gold chains about the feet of God," the Idylls typify the cultural pessimism felt by many in the Victorian era.