Writing in 1842 to his friend Alfred Domett, who had emigrated to New Zealand, Robert Browning enclosed 'Tennyson's new vol. and, alas, the old with it - that is what he calls old'. Browning was referring to the two-volume Poems of 1842, whose first volume consisted of heavily revised versions of poems published in 1830 and 1832. 'You will see, and groan!' Browning went on.

LRB 12 November 1987 | PDF Download