The Essay - Tennyson 200 - Tears, Idle Tears

Series in which contemporary British poets choose a single poem or extract by Tennyson and give a personal account of why it means so much to them. Kit Wright is often thought of as a poet for children or of light verse, but in a celebration of one of Tennyson's most poignant lyric poems, Tears, Idle Tears, he reflects in a moving and scholarly way on the poet's ability to capture the very essence of the human condition. In defending the poem, he challenges the common notion that Tennyson's gifts were no more than a supremely facile mastery of the English language Reader: Simon Russell Beale.