The Ballad of Oriana

"The Ballad of Oriana" is an early poem by Alfred Tennyson, published in 1830, but not in 1833.

[1] According to critic John Churton Collins, "This fine ballad was evidently suggested by the old ballad of "Helen of Kirkconnel", both poems being based on a similar incident, and both being the passionate soliloquy of the bereaved lover, though Tennyson's treatment of the subject is his own.

"[1] "Helen of Kirkconnel" was one of the poems which he was fond of reciting, and Fitzgerald says that he used also to recite this poem, in a way not to be forgotten, at Cambridge tables.

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