The Red Hand, and other Poems. By B. Magennis. (Sealy,
Bryers, and Walker, Dublin.)—Mr. Magennis tells us in his preface that he feels some diffidence in sending forth these poems to the public. We could wish, as will probably such of the public as read them, that his diffidence had been greater, and had prevented him from publishing them at all. The poem of "The Red Hand," from which the book takes its title, is a description of the battle in which Hugh O'Neil defeated the troops of Queen Elizabeth. It is poor in the extreme. Mr. Magennis makes this fact the more apparent by quoting a rather spirited account of the fight in prose by John Mitchel. In this he is kind.to his readers, though scarcely so to himself. Here is a specimen of Mr. Magennis's poetry " From Autiaime woody glens doth speak, Mao Barley in no accents weak
I, too, have come o'er many a hill, To join the war with right good will, And firm resolve with you to share The tug of battle whatsoe'er The fate may be of me and those Brave clans I'll lead against our foes."
"‘ Tug of battle" savours rather of the Agricultural Hall. There are about sixty or seventy pages of this dreary twaddle. The remaining poems in the volume do not seem possessed of any greater merit than "The Red Hand." Before concluding our remarks, we should like to remind Mr. Magennis that the irony which consists in placing a note of interrogation after some epithet, as "virgin (?) " or "tender (?) " is not that generally adopted by even would-be poets.
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