"mythic Uther's deeply-wounded son" — a note to Tennyson's "The Palace of Art"

George P. Landow, Professor of English and the History of Art, Brown University

Tennyson here continues his catalogue of historical and mythological figures embodying the high points of human culture with Saint Cecily, more commonly known as Saint Cecilia, traditionally the patron saint of music.

In the 1857 illustrated edition of Tennyson poems published by Moxon, Dante Gabriel Rossetti chose these lines as the subject of his first illustration for the poem, the second being King Arthur, who appears two quatrains later.

Last modified 11 October 2005