Princess, The

The, a Medley, a narrative poem by Alfred Tennyson, published in 1847. The body of the poem is in blank verse, but it contains several exquisite lyric poems. The story is of a college for women, founded by women-men being excluded entirely. The theme is the ideal character and sphere of woman.

As for the various characters in the poem, they give all possible views of woman's higher education; and as for the heroine herself, the Princess Ida, the poet who created her considered her as one of the noblest among his women. The stronger the man or woman, the more of the lion or lioness untamed, the greater the man or woman tamed. In the end we see this lioness-like woman subduing the elements of her humanity to that which is highest within her, and recognizing the relation in which she stands toward the order of the world and toward God.-Lord Tennyson.