Introduction

This chapter sets out the scope and methodology of the book, revealing how it moves beyond existing accounts of Wordsworthian influence in Tennyson to uncover new and revealing connections and interactions in some of the most emblematic poems of Tennyson’s career – ‘The Lady of Shalott’, ‘Ulysses’, In Memoriam , Maud , and ‘Tithonus’. It explains the book’s use of the term ‘echo’ to track the sometimes loud, sometimes faint, yet always audible Wordsworthian resonances within Tennyson’s poetry, as well setting its analysis of Tennyson’s poetry in relation to the intertextual and allusive process in general and Harold Bloom’s theory of intra-poetic rivalry in particular. It gives an overview of Tennyson’s recorded relationship with Wordsworth, as set out in Alfred Lord Tennyson: A Memoir, I and II, edited by Hallam Tennyson, Tennyson’s son. It gives an overview of relevant critical work in the field, and chapter summaries of the five chapters to follow, including a brief acknowledgement of how the book will conclude with an analysis of Tennyson’s valedictory lyric, ‘Crossing the Bar’.