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Despite Professor Paull F. Baum's assertion that the Ode on the Death of the Duke of Wellington "leaves modern readers cold," Laurence Binyon considers it a "fine example" of the Horatian ode in English and one of three such pieces worthy of a place with Marvell's ode upon Cromwell. Sir Harold Nicolson refers to Tennyson's ode as "magnificent"; Sir Charles Tennyson thinks it "perhaps his greatest . . . poem."[1] No doubt nationality, as well as temperament and training, affects a reader's response to this poem; but whether or not one can prove the Ode upon one's patriotic pulses, certainly it represents a notable technical achievement and a significant, though frequently over-looked, profession of Tennyson's faith — not alone in country, but in man and God. Yet the unity of tone and grammar of assent that characterize the ultimate text are the result of sustained application by the poet. Manuscripts and proofs testify to his assiduity; and three successive versions appeared (1852, 1853, 1855) before the Ode on the Death of the Duke of Wellington neared its final form. The definitive text is thirty lines longer than that of the first edition. Six of the lines originally published have been omitted; and, exclusive of changes in punctuation, over thirty of these have been altered or entirely recast. An account of the composition, reception, and revision of the poem and an appendix of variorum readings will illustrate Tennyson's scrupulous craftsmanship and his increasing willingness, as poet laureate, to speak affirmatively to the people.
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