23 MAY 1868, Page 23

Village Belle. By John Brent. (Simpkin and Marshall.)—These poems, we

observe, have reached a second edition, a token of popular favour at

which the critic is not disposed to cavil. There is little that is striking

about the thought, but the versification is more than usually har- monious; Poems, by A. A. le Gros (Bennett), and Ainstow M's Heir and other Poems, by Fanny Fisher (Bennett), contain nothing, as far as we can discover, that would not have been more wisely left for private admiration in albums ; the wide popularity of Mr. Lover's Poetical Works (Routledge) is shown by their having reached a fifth edition.