In connexion with the Union Church Literary and Social Guild, lecture of Tennyson waa delivered on Wednesday at the Union Charch Hall by Mr. A. H. Reea before a fairly large audience, presided over by the Rev. 0. E. Darwent, The speaker dwelt at consider-, able length on the life of the poet and laid stress on the effect that Byron undoubtedly had on the writings of the post when a young man. His criticism of "In Memoriam," which was written shortly after Byron's death, was that: while Tennyson had made it a boast that none of his works lacked curve, there wae no great progress in the general curve of the poem under review. That he considered was the fault in that particular work. After dealing with the friendships that Tennyson made with the big literary men of his time, and pointing cwt how many of them looked upon the post as a man of great, promise, the lecturer stated that much of Tennyson's great work was written before and up to 1843, It had to be remembered about Tennyson that Byron had just died when his works came to the fore, and where Byron was the dazzling brilliance of the day, Tennyson afforded the quietness and homeliness of the evening. It was by reason of his contrast with Byron that he so rapidly rose to favour. His early poems were spontaneous and there was not that reaching for effect that was marked in some of his later work.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.