Pastorals and Poems. By Crawford Wilson. (Kegan Paul, Trench, and
Co.)—Many measures and many moods are expressed with more or less skill in this pleasing and creditable volume of verse. Mr. Wilson manifests a keen appreciation of natural beauty, and some of his descriptions of the sights and sounds of rural life are both felicitous and faithful. Too many of these verses, however, betray signs of haste, and seem to have been written with ill-advised fluency ; in other words—and this is especially true in regard to some of the longer and more ambitious poems in the volume—they are not merely defective on the score of musical expression, but are deficient in the quality of sustained and progressive thought. The human charm of the book is con- siderable, and Mr. Crawford Wilson displays a manly and whole- some sympathy with the joys and sorrows of the poor. In fact, there is considerable fancy in the volume, much kindly feeling, and here and there a gleam of true poetry.
Previous page
