Lichens from the Old Rock, by Jessie M. Saxby (Nimmo)
; and historical Pictures from the Cumpagna of Rome, by John Wynniatt Grant (Hamilton, Adams, and Co.), are two volumes of verse which we do not care to criticize in detail. We can only say what we have in substance so often to repeat, that we cannot see that they have any reason of existence. Miss Saxby writes from Shetland, but fails to give any but the faintest shade of local colouring to her verse. There is something more of this in a volume, which proceeds from a very different locality, Drur'y Lane Lyrics, by John Bedford Leno (Leno), but we cannot go any further in praise. Vesper Songs, by Samuel Cuthbert Rogers (Freeman), is a volume of considerable merit, evidently the work of a man of culture, who possesses no inconsiderable powers of poetical expression. His diction is rich, sometimes encumbered with ornament and metaphor ; he often handles his metre with considerable skill. The ten-syllabled verse of the chief poem of the volume "Vig- nettes from the Life of David " (not a happy title, we think) is particu- larly easy and flowing. We give, as a specimen of Mr. Rogers' manner, one of his sonnets :— -
" This day has been a day of storm and sun, Bleak winds, and chequered sky, and driving rain, And barning sunlight with an amber stain, Spreading the housetops when the rain was done, And what a splendour ! First, a cloudy chain, Like two black armies bannered for the light; And then a happy flush of golden light, Like harvest on an ancient battle plain. And this was all displayed in such a field As London streets afford. This show was what Ten little yards in width of sky could yield, So verily, though this straight lane leads not Down to a beach, past ehaw and mossy Should I not be contPmed with my lot ! "
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