Page:Tennysoniana (1879).djvu/105

 for modern poetry in general, quoted from him. All England rang with the stirring music of "Locksley Hall." To John Sterling was committed the task of reviewing him in the "Quarterly" in a very different strain to the flippant attack of ten years before. Those also who had given him encouragement when his earlier volumes appeared, now saw their predictions verified.

Wordsworth writes to Professor Reed, under date July 1, 1845:—"I saw Tennyson when I was in London, several times. He is decidedly the first of our living poets, and I hope will live to give the world still better things. You will be pleased to hear that he expressed in the strongest terms his gratitude to my writings. To this I was far from indifferent, though persuaded that he is not much in sympathy with what I should myself most value in my attempts, viz the spirituality with which I have endeavoured to invest the material universe,