10 DECEMBER 1864, Page 19

Poems of the War. By George H. Boker. (Sampson Low,

Son, and Marston.)—This volume was originally published in Boston, Massa- chusetts, and consists of martial poems dealing with the chief events of the American War. It is impossible to deny that these are spirited verses, and that they often display great feeling and considerable poetic power. The poem called "The Ride to Camp," in which a trooper on his way back to camp is joined by Death and Glory, much as Sintram by Death and Sin, is a fine poem, and expresses well the impossibility of a military despotism in America, arising from the simple fact that the whole people has been educated to despise such a despot. English- men, however, cannot possibly enter into the author's feelings, and such an ode as "Booker's Across," in which it is boldly prophesied that "fighting Joe " will not re-cross the Rappahannock alive, is surely now a little absurd.