Monthly Magazine, is quite in the style of our own Sedley and Rochester. Mr. Stedman is another of those American writers who ought to have more readers in Great Britain than they have, for his verse is very agreeable, if not powerful. Perhaps the best of his lighter poetic efforts is his "Pan in Wall Street." No. 10.-Page 16. From The Wanderer (1859); a series of poems written in the cynical period of the writer's literary career. Lord Lytton's later work is of a much sounder quality; vide his Fables in Song (1874). The Wanderer, nevertheless, contains perhaps the truest poetry, quâ poetry, that he has written or will ever write. There can be no question of the superiority of his poetic powers over those of his more famous father, though the latter's verse is perhaps too sternly slighted in these superfine days. No. 11.-Page 18. From Queen Mary (1875), act v., scene 2, where it is sung by the heroine of the play; the play itself being, in spite of the swifter movement of Harold, the better of the two dramas Mr. Tennyson has yet given to the world. No. 12.-Page 19. From Poems and Ballads, first series (1866). In point of melody this lyric is far surpassed by its (companion?) poem, At Parting, of which the first verse runs : "For a night and a day Love sang to us, played with us, Folded us round from the dark and the light, And our hearts were full-filled of the music he made with us, Made with our lips and our hearts while he stayed with us, Stayed in mid-passage his pinions from flight, For a day and a night." No. 14.-Page 22. From The Unknown Eros and other Odes (1877); a volume of striking poetry from the pen of one whose previous works had hardly prepared the public for a book of such peculiar power. The contrast between these Odes and The Angel in the House is, indeed, so great, that those who have formed their estimate of Mr. Patmore's poetical capacity, after a perusal of the latter volume, will now find it necessary to revise it. The writer handles the metre of the Odes with great success. See Nos. 95 and 132. No. 15.-Page 24. From The Red Flag and other Poems (1872). Mr.. Roden Noel has recently produced a drama, called The House of Ravensburg, which does more justice to his unmistakeable powers than any one of his previous publications. It contains at least one charming lyric. No. 16.-Page 26. Mr. Lowell's serious poetry has not yet filtered through the hands of the select few in Britain, into those of the "ordinary reader "-either on account of its generally didactic character, or because Mr. Lowell's reputation as a "sentimental" poet has been obscured by the popularity of his "Biglow Papers." As in the case of the elder Hood, the American writer suffers from his success in humorous work; the public does not seem able to conceive of the same man as at once a great humorist and an imaginative poet of decided genius. No. 17.-Page 28. From the Poems (1870), and one of the most happy of the poet's efforts. It is both clear and musical. Mr. Rossetti's work is generally musical, but not always clear. He is seen perhaps at his strongest in his sonnets, for a selection from which see Book III., passim. The most obvious characteristic of Mr. Rossetti's poetry generally is the impression of power it conveys. No. 18.-Page 29. From Music and Moonlight, and other Poems (1874). Mr. O'Shaughnessy is another of the Swinburnian school. This is one of his most admirable pieces. No. 19.-Page 31. From Song of Two Worlds, third series (1875), and the production of a writer who, on the publication of the first series of the Songs, at once took a high position as one of the most vigorous of our younger poets. He is perhaps more original in his lyric forms than in the ideas embodied in them, though the latter have frequently a suggestiveness of their own. His Epic of Hades, if in style too reminiscent of the Tennysonian manner, is a very interesting poem, full of fine thoughts and felicitous expressions. No. 20.-Page 32. One of the most characteristic of Mr. Browning's shorter lyrics. No. 21.-Fage 33. From On Viol and Flute (1873); a volume of short poems by a writer, who, showing in this early book a keen sense of style, afterwards essayed a higher and not less successful flight in his drama of King Erik (1876), a work of great imaginative power. The few lyrics in it are quite Elizabethan in their tone. Mr. Gosse is further notable as one of the few living writers who have handled old French measures with skill. He is undoubtedly one of the most able of the new generation of poets. No. 22.-Page 35. From The Spectator; to which Mr. Bourdillon has contributed a series of short lyrics, worthy of remark for their completeness of idea and form. No. 23.-Page 36. From Pelleas and Ettarre, in The Idylls of the King. No. 25.-Page 38. From the Poems (1877) of a writer who ranks, with his brother, Mr. Frederick Myers, among the most thoughtful of the younger singers. No. 26.-Page 39. From The Infant Bridal and other Poems (1864) of Mr. Aubrey de Vere, who is one of the most attractive of our meditative poets. His verse is more nearly Wordsworthian than that of any of his contemporaries, except Mr. Matthew Arnold in some moods. No. 27.-Page 40. From Festus (1839); a work of which the interpolated lyrics are not, of course, the strongest feature. Still, they are interesting as the productions of a poet who has written one of the most striking works of modern times, and is yet one of the least known and understood of living writers. No. 28.-Page 41. A pleasing specimen of the verse of a lady whose greatest literary successes have been achieved in the path of prose fiction. No. 30.-Page 45. By the most dramatic of living lady poets, as well as one of the most tender of feminine lyrists. from A Woman Sold, and other Poems (1867). It is Mrs. |