Alfred Tennyson Introductory Poem of The Palace of Art

After reading the Palace of Art, I was wondering about the poem before it whether it is a part of it or just a poem that have similar themes like Ozymandias poems. Then, I started reading the poem line by line to examine whether it has to do with the poem or not.

            I send you, Friend, a sort of allegory,

            (You are an artist and will understand  

            Its many lesser meanings) of a soul,

The opening line is economically crafted, since it represents the speaker “I,” the receiver “Friend” and the message “a sort of allegory”. Moreover, Tennyson omission of the receiver’s name works as a rhetorical device that speaks to both the real person the letter “poem” was sent to and the reader who is invited to meditate in the wisdom of the lines. “You are an artist…” indicates that he has received complaints either from his friend or the readers that it is hard to understand art. Therefore, he asserts that “you are an artist” and it is not that hard task, because it speaks about “lesser meanings of a soul”.

            A sinful soul possessed of many gifts,

            A spacious garden full of flowering weeds,

            A glorious Devil, Large in heart and brain,

            That did love Beauty only, (Beauty seen

            In all varieties of mould and mind)

Then Tennyson starts explaining the contradictions of the soul as being “sinful” yet has “many gifts”. These descriptions work as base for the elaborate descriptions of the soul’s space and attitude in the longer poem. For instance, when reading the line “Beauty seen In all varieties of mould and mind …”, it takes the reader to poem (xxxviii) when Tennyson represent something imaginary like the drawings of the great men and simultaneously describes natural beauty that God created like in poem (XLVI).