23 MARCH 1867, Page 23

Poems, Descriptive and Lyrical. By T. Cox. (Hall and Co.)

The Progress of Engkrad. A Poem. (Edinburgh: Nimmo.) Poems. By Rev. E. S. Wilshere. (Hatchard.) Alfieri. A Drama in five acts. (C. J. Skeet.) The Times, the Telegraph, and Other Poems. By J. Godfrey Saxe. (S. 0. Beeton.)—Here are five volumes of poetry of unequar merit, but of small variety. There are some good lines in all (except in the drama), but there is not much to particularize. Mr. Cox's beat piece is one called "Marlowe's Summer Dream." Mr. Wilshene has. published his poems in order to raise some money for a church at the Cape, of which he is incumbent, and it would please us to hear that his object was realized. The author of the Progress of England has. appended strange disquisitions on colonial affairs to sonic nervous and. expressive stanzas, and not content with devising strange names for the new colonies of England, he proposes in a note to remodel the alphabet. Alfieri is a foolish play, not connected either in subject or in style with the poet of that name. Its most remarkable feature is, that while the scene is laid in Italy and the characters are Italians, a Frenchman and a German who talk with these Italians make use of broken English as their medium, while the Italians retort on them with English puns, of the vilest character. We have kept Mr. Saxe for the last as the beat of the five, nor do we feel unpatriotic in admitting that the best is an American. Still, Mr. Saxe is not too good for the company in which we- have classed him, as his poems, though fluent and readable, are diffuse, and not always original. Here is a stanza which traces its birth to Praed, perhaps not quite legitimately ;—

" And some on Trade and Commerce wait, And some in schools with dunces battle, And some the Gospel propagate, And some the choicest breeds of cattle ; And some are living at their ease, And some were wrecked in 'the revulsion,' Some serve the State for handsome fees; And one, I hear, upon compulsion."