Early in the year 1827 we find Alfred Tennyson and his elder brother Charles together at the Louth grammar-school, and preparing for the press a volume of juvenile poems, written from the age of fifteen upwards. The copyright was disposed of for a small sum to Messrs. Jackson, booksellers and printers of Louth,1 who published the volume in the spring of 1827, under the title of "Poems by Two Brothers," and with the modest motto, from Martial, on the title-page, "Hæc nos novimus esse nihil."

These poems are 102 in number, few of them extending to great length, as the volume only contains 228 pages. They are written in all kinds of metre, and on all sorts of subjects-classical and modern strangely alternating. Nearly all of them are loaded with footnotes, and headed by quotations, chiefly from Addison, Beattie, Byron, Cicero, Claudian, Cowper,

"From Grantham, Eyre went to the grammar-school of "Louth, in Lincolnshire, which Charles and Alfred Tenny. 66 son had left a year or two before. Their fame as poets "was still traditionary in the school, and Edward Eyre seemed "to feel a kind of noble envy, at once proud of the fact that "two of our boys' had actually published a volume of poems for which a bookseller gave them ten pounds, and 66 grieved he could not emulate them."-Life of Edward John Eyre, by Hamilton Hume (London, 1867), p. 11.

Gray, Horace (who is quoted no fewer than eighteen times), Hume, Lucretius, Milton, Moore, Ovid, Racine, Mrs. Radcliffe, Rousseau, Sallust, Scott, Tacitus, Terence, Virgil, and Young-displaying an extent of reading by no means inconsiderable for schoolboys.

The young poets seem to have been much under the then prevalent influence of Byron, since he is not only quoted six times, but the volume also contains a poem on his recent death, an allusion to the same event in another, and several rather obvious imitations of the "Hebrew Melodies."

The book, naturally enough, attracted no notice whatever on its first appearance,1 as it was little likely that an anonymous volume of poems, published in an obscure country town, should do.

The following is a list of the contents:

The only contemporary criticism that we have succeeded in tracing, appeared in the "Literary Chronicle and Weekly Review" of May 19, 1827, and is sufficiently mild and reserved in its praise. “This little volume,” says the sagacious reviewer, " exhibits a pleasing union of kindred tastes, and " contains several little pieces of considerable merit." He subjoins two as deserving of extract, viz. the stanzas commencing "Yon star of eve, so soft and clear," and "God's "Denunciations against Pharaoh-Hophra."

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Stanzas; "In early youth I lost my sire;" Memory; "Yes, there be some gay souls who never weep" The Exile's Harp; "Have ye not seen the buoyant orb?" Why should we weep for those who die? 99 66 Religion! tho' we seem to spurn ;” Remorse ; "On golden evenings, when the sun;" The Dell of E-; My Brother; Antony to Cleopatra; "I wander in darkness and sorrow;" "To one whose hope reposed on thee;" The Old Sword; "We meet no more;" The Gondola; Written by an Exile of Bassorah, while sailing down the Euphrates; Maria to her Lute, the gift of her dying Lover; The Vale of Bones; To Fancy; Boyhood; "Did not thy roseate lips outvie;" Huntsman's Song; Persia; Egypt; The Druid's Prophecies; Lines to one who entertained a light opinion of an Eminent Character; Swiss Song; The Expedition of Nadir Shah into Hindostan; Greece; The Maid of Savoy; Ignorance of Modern Egypt; Midnight; "In summer, when all Nature glows;" Scotch Song; "Borne on light wings of buoyant down;" Song; "The stars of yon blue placid sky;" Friendship; On the Death of my Grandmother; “And ask ye why these sad tears stream?" The Reign of Love; On Sublimity; The Deity; "'Tis the Voice of the Dead;" Time: an

Ode; "All joyous in the realms of day;" God's Denunciations against Pharaoh-Hophra, or Apries; The Thunderstorm; The Battle-field; The Grave of a Suicide; On the Death of Lord Byron; The Walk at Midnight; The Bard's Farewell; Mithridates presenting Berenice with the cup of poison; Epigram; Epigram on a Musician; On being asked for a Simile to illus-` trate the advantage of keeping the Passions subservient to Reason; The Old Chieftain; Apollonius Rhodius's Complaint; The Fall of Jerusalem; Short Eulogium on Homer; Lamentation of the Peruvians; "A sister, sweet endearing name!” “ Oh, never may frowns and dissension molest ;" "The sun goes down in the dark blue main;" "Still, mute, and motionless she lies ;" On a Dead Enemy; Lines on hearing a description of the Scenery of Southern America; The Duke of Alva's Observation on Kings; "Ah! yes, the lip may faintly smile;""Thou camest to thy bower, my love, across the musky grove;" To ; The Passions; The High Priest to Alexander; "The dew with which the early mead is drest;" On the Moonlight shining upon a Friend's Grave; A Contrast; Epigram; The Dying Christian; "Those worldly goods that distant seem;"

"How gaily sinks the gorgeous Sun within his golden bed;" A Glance; "Oh, ye wild Winds, that roar and rave;" Switzerland; Babylon; The Slighted Lover; "Oh! were this heart of hardest steel;" "Cease, railer, cease! unthinking man;" "In Winter's dull and cheerless reign;" Anacreontic; Sunday Mobs; Phrenology; Imagination; Love; To ——; Song; The Oak of the North; Exhortation to the Greeks; King Charles's Vision.

The Preface of the young poets informs us that these pieces" were written, not conjointly, but indivi-. dually, which may account for their difference of

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style and matter." In spite of this assurance, it is in some cases not easy to settle with anything like certainty the authorship of a particular piece. An attentive comparison of these poems with later acknowledged writings of Alfred and Charles Tennyson has, however, been rewarded by the discovery of certain parallel passages which, we think, will enable us to apportion a certain number of them to their respective authors, without much hesitation or doubt.

The following twelve pieces, from internal evidence of style, and from parallel passages in later and ac