POETRY.—Claudis and Fide, and other Poems. By Aston Clair. (London

Literary Society.)—This volume is dedicated to the memory of John Keats, poet ; a name which the reading of the poems themselves did not suggest to us. The author is not without poetical feeling, and is, if we may venture a conjecture, probably young. If he is not young, we should say it is a very bad case, for he has much to learn in the elements of poetry, not to say of language; and his fervour is very unchastened. Witness, p. 105 :— " The sword of de ith and ignomy might stay."

The young snit throbbed itself to life, and tra':c As from a long sweet dream, to overtake In sweeter realty the joys which seemed."

" F.ven as carelessly, even as fearlessly

As the free note of the bird, that afloat on the Breast of its darling breeze."

Of the sun :—

"Till down the glowing steep of heaven non plunge and disappear."

We could produce many more sash specimens of the poetry. It would be difficult, if not impossible, to select a dozen consecutive lines of average merit. We consider, therefore, the publication of these "essays" a mistake.—Ballads and Poems. By Members of the Glasgow Ballad Club. (William Blackwood and Sons)— " This club was formed," as a prefatory note tells us, "in 1876 for the study of ballads and ballad literature, and for friendly criticism of original ballads and poems contributed by the mem- bers. This volume contains a selection of these contributions, from the formation of the club till the end of 1983," numbering abort eighty-five, and occupying 325 pages. The object of the club is thus a very commendable one in all respects, and we think the example might be followed with great benefit by other large communities. We have read several of the poems with pleasure ; they show poetic power and skill in greater or less degrees; but the "selection," referred to above, should have been carried further, if it was intended to secure outside readers. There are some pretty and graceful pieces, particularly where the subject is love, as, "At the Old Gate." "My Secret" is genuine poetry, and there is a good deal of the " divine " material in " Kozma, the Smith" (a Russian fairy-story). We hope the "Glasgow Ballad Club" will go on with its good work, and develop the promise of its first volume. —Songs of Coming Day. (Kegan Paul, Trench, and Co.)—The modest desire expreswd in the preface will no doubt be realised ; any reader may find a little " honey," but hardly, we think, much. The sentiments ara humanitarian, and the aspirations those of the title-page ; but they gain little or nothing from the language in which they are clothed. The lines on " Co-operation,"- " No law can property divide,

With use and safety to abide. All law greed &Ina s will deride, Sava the !am of love, which make men live

As brethren, and free justice g.ve."

—may be taken as a fair illustration. Even when the diction does rise, it is not generally sustained. The poems on " Failure " and The Improvisatrice" may be read as specimens of the conceptions and their presentation.—Songs of the Country. By Staunton Brodie. With Vignettes by the Author. (Remington and Co.)— Some of the vignettes are pretty, and in them, we are afraid, con- sists the chief merit of the little volume. We have not found anything better than "The Robin," in which the idea is simple and pretty enough, and " The Fairy Island ;" but neither rises above the level of a mediocre exercise. Among the shortcomings will be found much obscurity which is hardly confined to the expression, as in " The Mine of Forgetfulness." " Here latitude is common hire," p. 39, we leave to the interpretation of readers. The following, from "The Land of Imagination," is altogether too bad for comment :— P. 65 :—

" Aught that M Nature may attract, And every graceful human act Live through the infancy of fact

For the great sorrow's sake— To sleep, by ills no longer wracked, Calm as a limpid lake."

—Songs in the Night. By "M. W.F." (Thomas Bosworth, London; John Menzies and Co., Edinburgh.) —" The one motive for publishing, springs from the desire that all in the Christian Church may be com- forted through the comfort wherewith the authoress herself, for more than thirty years, has been comforted and made glad." The volume contains upwards of one hundred and fifty short pieces. The religious preponderate, and are up to the average merit of that class of composition. Several of these pieces, written in Scotch, evince no little poetic feeling and expression ; such are, " First Love" (with its " slae-black een "), " Nannie," " A Plea for the Bairnies," " 0

what will a' the Lasses do ?" We would recommend the excision of occasional stanzas, such as the following :-

" I saw a youth, with look quite unassuming.,

Bare his fair head within the southern aisle, And all way round keep hat in hand so meekly ; ' Reverence,' I thought, ' has grown in honest soil.' "

We hope the suggestion will be taken kindly, for the authoress has told us, in a genial little piece (so entitled), " I dinna fear the critics."—Whisperings : Poems. (Sampson Low, Marston, Searle, and Rivington.)—The preface is ambitious, viz. :—

" May the Truths vital, in these writings e'er Be by the future generations worn

Next to their hearts: a great Reality The Seal's sure guide throughout Eternity!"

The first page, "To the Moses," bears a noticeable resemblance, general and verbal, to the preface. To escape this apparent same- ness, we tried the end of the volume, but still could not get clear of the " empyrean " which we had encountered in each of the two first poems. From the last page, 153, we cull :- " Had Byron found one single woman-friend To guide him through the fury of the storm, On whom he could iu every way depend," &c.

The opening lines, with one or two short extracts, as follows, will fairly show the quality of the poems and their music :-

" Te heaven-born gifts—for noblest purpose sent, That drew from worthless haunts of joyless smue Ambitious youth—inspiring Muses lent,

To aid him, Soul, from worldliness to wean."

" Listen, 0 Man! If thou unto the Christ-sphere would attain, Seek not by creeds and dogmas the mastery to gain. Thyself to govern and subdue, or else thou too wilt find His teachings will avail thee naught, as amepted by mankind."

Poems. By Peter Burn, Brampton, Cumberland. (Bemrose and Sons, London ; G. and T. Coward, Carliale.)—We learn from the preface that this volume is a reprint of " Voices of Nature," published twenty-five years ago, and of other poems that have followed in the interval,—viz., " Local Traditions," "Night, and other Poems," "Funereal and Didactic," and "Eng- lish Border Ballads." To these are now added " Autumn Leaves," making up a volume of very varied matter,, and extending to close upon four hundred pages. The sentiment throughout is good and unobjectionable; beyond this we have little or no praise to offer. In order not to do the author any injustice, we have examined the book very carefully in its various divisions, hoping to find in one what we missed in another,—poetical merit ; but our search has been unsuccessful. " T' Gade Man's Thought (in t' Cumberland Dialect) " is good of its kind (not a very poetical one). We still hoped to get compensatica in the "Ballads," in the author's own dialect ; but any satisfaction was limited to " The Ladye Jane." Under such circumstances, we do not refer particularly to positive faults that we had noted. The volume is not likely to possess any interest for readers outside the author's own friends and county.