Turnbull Lectures

Upcoming Lectures | History of Series | Past Lectures

Past Lectures

No.	Date of Lecture	Speaker and Topic
1st	March 1891	Edmund Clarence Stedman “The Nature and Elements of Poetry” (8 lectures)
2nd	March-April 1892-93	Sir Richard Claverhouse Jebb, Cambridge University “Growth and Influence of Classical Greek Poetry” (8 lectures)
3rd	1892-93	Robert Yelverton Tyrrell, University of Dublin “Growth and Influence of Latin Poetry” (8 lectures)
4th	1893-94	Charles Eliot Norton, Harvard University “Dante”
	1894-95	unknown
5th	April 1896	George Adam Smith, United Free Church College of Glasgow “Hebrew Poetry” (8 lectures)
6th	March-April 1897	Ferdinand Bruntière, Ecole Normale “French Poetry” (9 lectures, in French)
7th	March-April 1898	Charles R. Lanman, Harvard University “The Poetry of India” (8 lectures)
	1898-1899	unknown
8th	April 1900	C. H. Herford, University of Manchester “Nature and Romance in English Poetry” (8 lectures)
9th	1900-01	Hamilton W. Mabie, Editor of The Outlook “Poetry in America” (7 lectures)
10th	Apr. 1902	Emil G. Hirsch, University of Chicago “Medieval Jewish Poetry” (8 lectures)
	1902-03	unknown
11th	Jan.-Feb. 1904	Count Angelo de Gubernatis, Istituto di Studi Superiori di Firenze “Italian Poetry” (9 lectures, in French)
12th	Mar.-Apr. 1905	George E. Woodberry, Nebraska State University “Poetic Forms of Life” (8 lectures)
13th	Mar. 1906	Henry van Dyke, Princeton University “The Service of Poetry” (8 lectures)
14th	Feb. 1907	Eugen Kuehnemann, University of Breslau “Deutsche Dichtung in der Zeit ihrer groessten Bluete” (8 lectures, in German)
15th	Jan.-Feb. 1908	A. V. Williams Jackson, Columbia University “Poetry of Persia” (7 lectures)
16th	Mar. 1909	Ramón Menéndez Pidal, Universidad de Madrid “Spanish Poetry” or “Spanish Epic Poetry” (7 lectures, in French)
	1909-10	unknown
17th	Mar. 1911	Maurice Francis Egan, Georgetown College “Typical Christian Hymns” (8 lectures)
18th	Mar. 1912	Paul Shorey, University of Chicago “The Greek Epigram and the Palatine Anthology” (6 lectures)
	1912-13	unknown
19th	Apr.-May 1914	George Lyman Kittredge, Harvard University “The Poetry of Chaucer” (6 lectures)
20th	Apr. 1915	Sir Walter Raleigh, Oxford University “Poetry and Criticism of the Romantic Revival” (6 lectures)
21st	Mar.-Apr. 1916	Paul Elmer More, former Editor of The Nation “Poets of America” (7 lectures)
22nd	Apr.-May 1917	Edward Capps, Princeton University “Formative Influences in Greek Tragedy” (6 lectures)
	1917-18	none given
	1918-19	none given
	1919-20	none given
23rd	Apr. 11-22, 1921	Charles Mills Gayley, University of California at Berkeley “Contemporary English Poetry” (6 lectures)
	1921-22	unknown
24th	Oct. 1922	Émile Legouis, La Sorbonne “The Poetry of Edmund Spenser” (6 lectures)
	1923-24	unknown
25th	Oct. 1924	Walter de la Mare “Three English Poets and Some Elements of the Poet’s Art” [on John Keats, Emily Brontë, Christina Rossetti] (6 lectures)
	1925-26	unknown
	1926-27	unknown
26th	Oct.-Nov. 1927	Albert Feuillerat, University of Rennes “Shakespeare and Poetry” (5 lectures)
	1928-29	unknown
	1929-30	unknown
27th	1930-31 [Fall?]	Edmond Faral, Collège de France “Le cycle poétique du roi Arthur” (6 lectures)
28th	Apr. 1931	George William Russell (AE) “Some Personalities of the Irish Literary Movement” “A Poet and Artist Considers Dreams” (2 lectures)
	1931-32	unknown
29th	Jan.-Feb. 1933	T. S. Eliot “The Metaphysical Poets” or “The ‘Metaphysical’ Poets” (3 lectures)
30th	Oct. 1933	R. W. Chambers, University College, London “The Continuity of English Poetry, from the Beginnings to the Tudor Times” (5 lectures)
31st	Apr. 1935	Lascelles Abercrombie, University of London “The Art of Wordsworth” (5 lectures)
32nd	1936	H. J. C. Grierson, University of Aberdeen “Milton as Prophet and Artist” (5 lectures)
33rd	1937	D. Pedro Salinas, Universidad Internacional de Santander “The Attitude Toward Reality in Spanish Poetry” (5 lectures)
34th	1938	Robert Peter Tristram Coffin, Bowdoin College “New Poetry of New England” (6 lectures)
35th	1939	Archibald MacLeish, Editor of Fortune “Six Lectures about Poets Now” (6 lectures)
36th	Jan. 29/31, 1940	W. H. Auden “Poetry and the Old World” and “America Is Where You Find It”
37th	1941	Joseph Warren Beach, University of Minnesota “A Romantic View of Poetry” (6 lectures)
	1941-42	none given
	1942-43	none given
	1943-44	none given
	1944-45	none given
	1945-46	unknown
38th	Jan. 1947	George Frisbie Whicher, Amherst College “Emily Dickinson, The Making of an American Poet” (6 lectures)
39th	Nov. 1947	Robert Frost, Dartmouth College “Precepts in Poetry” and “Extravagances of the Spirit” (6 lectures)
40th	1948	Dr. Donald H. Stauffer, Princeton University “Studies in the Lyrics of William Butler Yeats” (3 lectures)
41st	1949	Charles Jasper Sisson, University College, London “Shakespeare’s Approach to Shakespeare” (3 lectures)
42nd	1950	Mme. Marie-Jeanne Dury, La Sorbonne “De Victor Hugo intime à Victor Hugo mythique” “La Poésie Française sous l’occupation” (2 lectures)
43rd	1950	Henri Peyre, Yale University “Baudelaire as Critic”
44th	Apr. 1951	E. M. W. Tillyard, Cambridge University “The English Renaissance: Fact or Fiction?” (6 lectures) » “The Transition from the Medieval to the Renaissance Way of Thought in English Literature” » “Was There an English Renaissance?” » “The Transition in the Lyric” (Part 1) » “The Transition in the Lyric” (Part 2) » “The Transition in Literary Criticism” » “The Transition in the Epic”
45th	Oct. 8-17, 1952	Frank Percy Wilson, Oxford University “Elizabethan Drama” (5 lectures) » “Introductory” (Wed., Oct. 8) » “Tamburlaine” (Fri., Oct. 10) » “The Jew of Malta: Doctor Faustus” (Mon., Oct. 13) » “The Massacre at Paris: Edward II” (Wed., Oct. 15) » “Marlowe and the Early Shakespeare” (Fri., Oct. 17)
46th	1954	Pierre Emmanuel, Radio Télévision Française “Poetry, A Vocation”
	1954-55	unknown
	1955-56	unknown
47th	Jan. 1957	Richard Lattimore, Bryn Mawr College “Studies in the Poetry of Greek Tragedy” (6 lectures)
48th	1958	*Poetry Festival: concurrent with the First Bolligen Poetry Festival R. P. Blackmur, Princeton University “The Poetry of Edwin Muir” Yvor Winters, Stanford University “Poetic Styles, Old and New” Marianne Moore* “The Poetry of Dame Edith Sitwell” Mark Van Doren, Columbia University “The Poetry of Thomas Hardy”
	1959-60	unknown
	1960-61	unknown
49th	1961	*The Moment of Poetry* John Holmes, Tufts University “Surroundings and Illuminations” May Sarton, Wellesley College “The School of Babylon” Richard Eberhart, Dartmouth College “Will and Psyche in Poetry” Richard Wilbur, Wesleyan University “Round About a Poem of Housman’s” Randall Jarrell, University of North Carolina at Greensboro “Robert Frost’s ‘Home Burial’”
	1962-63	unknown
50th	1963	Yves Bonnefoy, Brandeis University “La Poésie Française et L’Expérience de L’Être”
	1964-65	unknown
51st	1965-66	*The Poetic Tradition* Roy Harvey Pearce, University of California at San Diego “Whitman and Our Hope for Poetry” Arnold Stein, Johns Hopkins University “George Herbert’s Lyrics: The Art of Plainness” Wolfgang Clemen, Universität München “The Spirits in Shelley’s Poetry” T. B. L. Webster, University College, London “Euripedes: Traditionalist and Innovator” Jorge Guillén, Wellesley College, Emeritus “A Portrait of Pedro Salinas” John H. Finley, Jr., Harvard University “Pindar’s Beginnings” George E. Duckworth, Princeton University “The ‘Old’ and the ‘New’ in Vergil’s Aeneid” Victor Pöschl, Universität Heidelberg “Poetry and Philosophy in Horace”
52nd	1966	Michel Deguy, Université de Paris VII (Saint-Denis) “Poésie et Connaissance”
	1967-68	unknown
53rd	1968	Margit Frenck, Universidad Nacionale Autónoma de México, and Antonio Alatorre, El Colegio de México “Poesia y musica del renacimento español” (lecture/recital)
54th	1969	Northrop Frye, University of Toronto “Romantic Poetics and Myth”
55th	1969	Irving Singer, Massachusetts Institute of Technology “The Loves of Dido and Aeneas: Variations on a Theme: Henry Purcell: Dido and Aeneas; Hector Berlioz: Les Troyens à Carthage”
56th	1970	A. Alvarez, London “The Savage God: Sylvia Plath and Contemporary Poetry”
57th	1970	David Ray “The Light-Bound Space of the Mind: Remarks on Contemporary Poetry and Painting”
58th	1970	Dámaso Alonso, Real Academia de la Lengua “Hijos de la ina: Children of Wrath”
59th	1971	*Paul Valéry Centennial: Jackson Matthews* Gérard Genette, Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Science Sociales James Lawler, University of Chicago Michel Deguy, Université de Paris VII (Saint-Denis) Elizabeth Sewell, University of North Carolina at Greensboro Jacques Derrida, Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Science Sociales
60th	1972	Kenneth Koch, Columbia University “Poetry and Children”
61st	1973	Erich Segal, Yale University and Wolfson College, Oxford “The Birth of Comedy”
62nd	1973	Nathan A. Scott, Jr., University of Chicago “Hope, History, and Literature”
63rd	1973	William Heyen, State University of New York College at Brockport “On Richard Wilbur: An Experiment in Criticism”
64th	1974	*Conference on the Genealogy of the Epic: Gregory Nagy* and Richard Macksey, Johns Hopkins Univ., co-chairs Joseph Russo, Haverford College Albert B. Lord, Harvard University David Bynam, Harvard University Jenny Clay, Haverford College Hugh S. MacKay, Jr., Harvard University Douglas Frame, Paris et al.
65th	1975	Josephine Jacobsen “The Landscapes of the Imagination: Elliott Coleman at Hopkins”
66th	1975	Louis Zukofsky “Poetry and Poetics: An Objectivist Perspective”
67th	1975	Jacques Derrida, Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Science Sociales “La Question de Style”
68th	1976	Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe, University of California at Berkeley “L’echo du sujet: sur al compulsion autobiographique”
69th	1977	Edwin Honig, Brown University “The Poet’s Other Voice: Spontaneous Exchanges on Translation”
70th	1977	Harold Bloom, Yale University “The Sublime Crossing and the Death of Love”
71st	1977	Yves Bonnefoy, Université de Nice “Que peut encore la poésie?”
72nd	1977	Symposium on John Ruskin John Dixon Hunt, London “Oeuvre and Footnote” George L. Hersey, Yale University “Ruskin as an Optical Thinker” Jeffrey L. Spear, Princeton University “‘These are the Furies of Phlegethon’: Ruskin’s Set of Mind and the Creation of Fors Clavigera” “‘My darling Charles’: Selections from the Ruskin-Norton Correspondence” Marc A. Simpson, Yale University “The Dream of the Dragon: Ruskin’s Serpent Imagery” William Arrowsmith, Johns Hopkins University “Ruskin’s Fireflies” Garry Wills, Johns Hopkins University Richard Macksey, Johns Hopkins University “Proust on the Margins of Ruskin”
73rd	1978	Paul de Man, Yale University “Baudelaire, Benjamin, and Translation”
74th	1978	Jean Starobinski, Université de Genève “An Interpretation of Rousseau and Baudelaire”
75th	1979	Ronald Paulson, Yale University “Constable’s Poetics: The Suppression of Literary Landscape”
76th	1979	Frank Doggett Stevens Centennial Lecture, “Wallace Stevens: The Making of Poems”
77th	1979	Frances Ferguson, University of California at Berkeley “The Bathos of Experience: The Poetics of Edmund Burke”
78th	1980	James Nohrnberg, University of Virginia “Epic Comparison and Comparative Epic in Paradise Lost”
79th	1980	Michel Deguy, Paris “La poésie en question”
80th	1981	Paul de Man, Yale University “The Poetics of the Sublime”
81st	1982	Arnold Stein, University of Illinois “The Voices of the Satirist: John Donne”
82nd	1983	John Malcolm Wallace, University of Chicago “Timon of Athens, De Beneficiis, and the Three Graces”
83rd	1984	J. Hillis Miller, Yale University “The Difficulties in Reading William Carlos Williams”
84th	1984	Joseph N. Riddel, University of California at Los Angeles “An American Poetics”
	1985-86	none given
	1986-87	none given
	1987-88	none given
	1988-89	none given
	1989-90	none given
	1990-91	none given
	1991-92	none given
	1992-93	none given
	1993-94	none given
	1994-95	none given
	1995-96	none given
	1996-97	none given
	1997-98	none given
	1998-99	none given
	1999-2000	none given
85th	Sept. 11, 2000	William H. Gass, Washington University (St. Louis) “The Life and Works of Rainer Maria Rilke”
86th	Apr. 26, 2001	C. K. Williams, Princeton University on translating Frances Ponge
87th	Apr. 22, 2002	W. S. Merwin on memoir
88th	Mar. 27, 2003	Harold Bloom, Yale University and New York University “Hamlet: Poem Unlimited”
89th	Nov. 12, 2003	Dave Smith, Johns Hopkins University “The Other Raspberry: Nature and Poetry”
90th	Mar. 15, 2004	William H. Pritchard, Amherst College “Randall Jarrell’s Poetry”
91st	Oct. 26, 2004	Jahan Ramazani, University of Virginia “Remapping Modern and Contemporary Poetry”
92nd	Feb. 10, 2005	Helen Vendler, Harvard University “The Yeatsian Sequence: Forms of Poetry in ‘Nineteen Hundred and Nineteen’”
93rd	Dec. 1, 2005	Alicia Ostriker, Rutgers University “Eros and Metaphor”
94th	Feb. 23, 2006	John Hollander, Yale University “Fictive Espionage”
95th	Nov. 13, 2006	Willard Spiegelman, Southern Methodist University “The Poet, Born or Made?: The Case of Amy Clampitt”