POETRY. — The Lady of Ranza, and other Poems. By. G. Eyre.

(Alex. Gardner, Paisley.)—The principal poem in this volume is a story of love and battle, formed on the ordinary type, and told in indifferent verse. Mr. Eyre has not caught the secret of blank verse :- " In sleeping sti lnevs, scarcely broken by A mountain lien," is a quite inadmissable collocation of words.

" His brother she remembers too. and his Dark hair divided o'er a noble brow,"

is, if possible, worse. Is it not, too, a very strange thing in "Antony" to say :—

" They passed by many a low, green isle That, cool in sunlit silence, slept "?

Greek islands are not commonly "low " and "green," and "sunlit silence" in the /Egean in September never, we should say, was "cool."—Three Sheikhs : an Oriental Narration ; and The Fishers : a Cantata. By Henry Rose. (Isbister.)—We cannot compliment Mr. Rose on having caught anything of the tree Oriental spirit in his 4‘ Narration." It consists of three stories, which would have been better told, we think, in prose. The " Cantata " is as good as the " words " to music commonly are. As for the hexameters which in- troduce the three stories of the Sheikhs, they are, we think, the very worst that we have ever seen. Every line, with two exceptions only, ends with two monosyllables. Here are two specimens :— " She dwelt most on the firm will proved to belong to a mere lad."

" Friendship could hardly be tested beyond such a trial of true worth."

It is carious, after reading these, to find that our anther believes " that our language is so flexible, that it could hardly fail to lend itself to any rhythm based upon accentuation."—The Conscience, and other Poems. By Charles W. Stubbs, M.A. (W. Swan Sonnenschein and Co.) —Mr. Stubbs has won a name, by genuine efforts and honest utter- ances, on behalf of that section of the poor with which circumstances have brought him into contact. These poems have no special reference to his own special subject, but they are interesting, as characteristic of the writer's temper and habits of thought. "Una and the Paupers" is, perhaps, the best of them. From this we quote a few lines :—

" Thus Una sat by pauper beds, content

With duty, that strong spur of earnest soul=, And strong to draw the silent recompense Of thanks from death-strained eyes, that catch the light

Of other eyes across the darkening sea,—

The angel eyes, that watch, and wait, and weep. To many a foundering soul she stretched The hand of help: and from her eyes they caught The light of heaven, that brightens into hope, The sinner's hope, from Him, the Crucified.

Three short years of work, and then at last To her the angel voices softly called, In tones that seemed the sweet tones of a friend, Bidding her welcome to a home of love.

And so she passed to where beside the Lamb She wears the crown and walks with those in white."

—Alice, and other Poems. By Fred Henderson. (Jerrold and Sons.)—Mr. Henderson urges a special plea (we call it special, because it is written, not printed) that his poems were mostly written when he was but sixteen. This is allowable, but why mark the passages which are to be admired,—for this we suppose to be the meaning of the pencil- marks We can honestly say that the verses are very creditable productions for sixteen. Our readers may judge of a passage (not marked, by the way) which seems to us to show considerable power of expression

"On the northern sky The Bear was treading round the Pole, and bright Upon the southern edge fair Sirius shone, . And twinkled into fire, and changed to blue And gold, a sparkling gem on Night's fair crown. Orion, mighty hunter, faced the Bull,

Where shone the fairy Pleiads, and below His belt, whose triple star clasp firm was fixed, Hung his great nebulous sword. Low in the north Bright Vega re Attired lustrous whiteness round, And overhead Capella gleamed and flashed, The apex of a shafted cone of light."

Via Crucis, and other Poems. By the Very Rev. John A. Jack- man. (M. H. Gill and Son, Dublin.)—Dr. Jackman does not commend the lofty themes on which he writes by verse which has neither sense nor sound. We do not care to quote what we might. What follows will suffice :—

" Absolve me now, For my heart is contrite, Again the bud blooms on the bough, It is fair in God's sight."

—Early Musings. By " Myles." (The Standard Office, London- derry.)—" Myles" protests vigorously on behalf of the rights to old possessions, and adds some verses, comic and sentimental, which call for no particular remark.—We must content ourselves with men- tioning The Pearl of Anjou, and other Poems, by Edmund Walters, M.A. (Alexander and Shepheard).—Verses, by Herbert Wollcott Brown (Capples, Upham, and Co., Boston, U.S.A.)—Gems of German Poetry, translated by Lady John Manners (William Black- wood and Sons).--Poems of Modern Thought, by Minot J. Savage (Williams and Norgate).—Henry, and other Tales, by Francis William Adams (Elliot Stock).— Poems, by Lewis Gidlay (Parker and Co.), a " Second Edition."—A few words of praise are due to an elegant volume of verse, In Memoriam, Izaak Walton : Twelve Sonnets and an Epilogue. By T. Westwood. (Simpkin, Marshall, and Co.)—Of the twelve, perhaps, " Izaak and Elia," two great and good who have trodden old " Totnam Hills" in time past, is the best.

CHRISTMAS AND NEW-YEAR'S CAM:M.—Messrs. Hildesheimer and Faulkner (Jewin Street) send us a large assortment of Christmas awl New-Year's Cards, many of them printed in colours laid on with a good deal of delicacy, and some in sepia. We prefer, on the whole, the landscapes, trees, and flowers, which are usually very

pretty, though the animal pictures are also good, and sometimes humorous. The comic human figures are, as usual, the least successful ; bat there are great varieties of merit even amongst thorn.

Some of the small scrap-books of select poems are selected with a good deal of taste, and will be very welcome as gifts.—

We have received Messrs. Prang's American Christmas and New- Year's Cards (Agent, Arthur Ackermann, 191 Regent Street), cards which, as usual, exceed in ingenuity and beauty almost all, if not quite all, that are produced at home. This year they are, perhaps, hardly so delicately executed as in former years, but then, again, they have none of those silk fringes which seemed to be so inappropriate to the cards. The landscapes are very beautiful, and there is a lovely fan, and a silk and velvet screen painted with azaleas in the most exquisite fashion, which will delight those young ladies to whose happy lot it may fall to receive it as a Christmas present.