Page:Tennysoniana (1879).djvu/45

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POEMS, 1830-1833.
35

chiefly Lyrical," there appeared a small volume of poems by Charles Tennyson,[1] who had been associated with his brother in the volume of 1827. This little book contains a sonnet to Arthur Hallam,[2] and a Dedicatory Sonnet "To my sister Mary."

These two volumes were reviewed together by Leigh Hunt in the "Tatler,"[3] where he entered into a somewhat lengthy disquisition on the respective merits of the two brothers, finally awarding the palm to Alfred.[4]

By a careful comparison of Charles Tennyson's little volume with the "Poems by Two Brothers," the reader who is fortunate enough to possess both will find much additional help in appropriating the pieces

  1. "Sonnets and Fugitive Pieces," by Charles Tennyson, Trin. Coll. Cambridge: published by B. Bridges, Market Hill, 1830, pp. 83.
  2. Sonnet 45. To A. H. H.
  3. "The Tatler," Nos. 149-155,from Thursday, February 23, to Thursday, March 3, 1831.
  4. "There is a tiny volume of sonnets published by his brother Charles between thirty and forty years ago, which shows plainly that, however the poetical gift may have come to its head in Alfred, he is not the only poet of the family. In this volume—it was published, I think, when he was still at college—there are some sonnets of rare and excellent workmanship."—Archbishop Trench, Afternoon Lectures on Literature and Art (London, 1867), p. 163.