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Mr. Black's Lecture.

Sever 11 was again crowded to its utmost capacity last night when Mr. E. Charlton Black gave his lecture on Tennyson. Even the small ante rooms were filled, and many were obliged to go away. In view of the great number that attend and the small size and closeness of Sever 11 there seems to be no reason why this popular course of lectures should not be given in Sanders Theatre.

It was in 1830 when Tennyson was an undergraduate of Trinity that he published the first volume to which he signed his name. With Cowper and Burns began a new style of literature, in which nature was more regarded. Especially in the poetry of Keats we have as good a painting of nature as there is. It was when the new poetical style of Cowley and Burns had done its work through Keats that Tennyson came into prominence. Among his early poems two are especially prominent, the Recollections of Arabian Knights and Marianna. In 1833 Tennyson published his second volume with The Lady of Shalott as its first poem. These two volumes mark the lyrical period of his life. After 1833 came the idyllic period. He was an ideal descriptive writer, and from now on his touches of nature were especially delicate. In 1847 appeared The Princess, which dealt with the nature of man and woman. In 1850 he published his In Memoriam, which can be compared to nothing else in poetry. It was not till 1875 that Tennyson appeared as a dramatic writer. Though he wrote a few good dramas, his genius was not dramatic. It was as a writer of studies in character and dialect that he especially excelled.

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