Phases of - Life, in Memoriam, and other Poems. By Thomas
Reid. (John Machuan.)—The preface to those poems is so modest and sensible that we heartily wish we could speak more favourably of them. They are the composition of a thoughtful and cultivated mind, but in poetry there can be no medium. In substance they are never absurd, but want power and originality ; and in form they are often faulty, erring not on the side of exuberance but of tameness. Let Mr. Reid turn, for instance, to page 65. The first eighteen lines are quite unmetrical, and contain such rhymes as obscenity and humanity, daylight and night, mother and together, stair-head and bread, purity and poverty. Or again, at page 117 :—
"But drink, strong drink, robs millions Of health, strength, wealth, and fame ; Causing crime and other curses Too wwnerous to name."
snan who it in kini to be a poet could, we think, have written that stanza. Mr. Reid's error, however, is not in writing poetry, but in publishing it. The first is a useful mental exercise, and to many men, as to Mr. Reid, a source of much pleasure ; but the last is either a great triumph or a great mistake.
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