The Palace of Art

"The Palace of Art" is a 1832 (revised 1842) poem by Alfred Lord Tennyson. In the poem a man constructs a palace of art for his soul with any amount of art. The art of the palace and its gardens deals with sacred, secular and irreligious themes, the moral value appears irrelevant and only the artistic value matters. The builder converses figuratively with his soul, referred to as she from the Latin anima. The builder’s soul at first likes the palace but later tires of it and asks for a cottage where she can purge her guilt.

External links

The Palace of Art, Alfred Lord Tennyson (An online text with commentary)
The Palace of Art public domain audiobook at LibriVox

v t e Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson
Early poetry	Poems, Chiefly Lyrical (1830) "The Deserted House" "The Kraken" "The Lady of Shalott" "The Lotos-Eaters" "Mariana" "Oenone" "Mariana in the South" The Miller's Daughter "Claribel" "The Ballad of Oriana"
Poetry	"Break, Break, Break" "The Charge of the Light Brigade" "The Day-Dream" "A Dream of Fair Women" "Godiva" "St. Agnes" Lady Clare Idylls of the King "In Memoriam A.H.H." "Lady Clara Vere de Vere" "Locksley Hall" "Now Sleeps the Crimson Petal" Poems (1842) "The Palace of Art" The Princess "Sir Galahad" "St. Simeon Stylites" "Sweet and Low" "Tears, Idle Tears" "The Two Voices" "Ulysses"
Late poetry	"Crossing the Bar" "The Eagle" Enoch Arden "Flower in the Crannied Wall" "The Higher Pantheism" Maud "Ring Out, Wild Bells" "Tithonus"
Other works	The Foresters (play) The Window (song cycle)
Related	Chapel House, Twickenham Farringford House Tennyson Down Blackdown, West Sussex
People	Emily Tennyson (wife) Hallam Tennyson (son) Lionel Tennyson (grandson) Charles Tennyson (grandson) Emilia Tennyson (sister) Charles Tennyson Turner (brother) Frederick Tennyson (brother) Arthur Hallam (friend)