[8][9] Home sales were from the start highly encouraging, and his two-thirds profit agreement with Moxon earned Tennyson more than £600 during the first four years, alleviating his serious financial difficulties.

Thomas Carlyle found it "infinitely gratifying to find one true soul more, a great melodious Poet-soul, breathing the vital air along with us.

[17][18] Leigh Hunt, in the Church of England Quarterly Review, praised the book and called Tennyson "a kind of philosophical Keats".

[19] James Spedding wanted to see a long poem from him;[20] he also, along with John Sterling and the anonymous reviewer in the Atlas, thought that human sympathy was the strong point of the volume.

[21] On the other hand the Christian Remembrancer believed Tennyson "had not yet become human enough", and similarly the Westminster Review, the London University Magazine and Hogg's Weekly Instructor urged him to draw on the sympathies of his own personal experiences.