Gatherings among the Gum Trees. By Mitchell Kilgour Beveridge. (Melbourne,
James Reid.)—These poems are the composition of an Aus- tralian "Bushman," and though they have very little originality re- garded as poetry, we welcome the work of a man who can fill up the long evenings by writing sonnets and songs, instead of in smoking and local gossip. The two longest poems embody genuine aboriginal legends, but the treatment of them is somewhat too direct to be artistic.
"The mighty Wakey Wakey King was sleeping in his camp, But his brow was covered over with unearthly drops of damp ; And thick and short—uncertain like—his respiration came, As the indecisive flickering of a dying candle's flame.
All suddenly this mighty King uprose him from the ground, And sat upon his haunches, looking cautiously around."
It would be hard to surpass the last couplet in picturesqueness, but Europeans will find it deficient in serious dignity, and " uncertain like," though an expressive colloquialism, is scarcely a poetical form of speech. We recommend Mr. Beveridge to go on writing, but to read much more and publish much less.
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