"Now sleeps the crimson petal" and Sexuality

James R. Kincaid, Aerol Arnold Professor of English, University of Southern California

Note 9 to Chapter 4 of the author's Tennyson's Major Poems, which Yale University Press published in 1975. It has been included in the Victorian Web with the kind permission of the author, who of course retains copyright.

There are two readings of the poem which emphasize this level of the action, though
each suggests different implications for the sexuality: see R. B. Smith, 8 - 9; and T. J. Assad, 52 -58.

Last modified: 28 March 2001