24 AUGUST 1878, Page 22

Ke'ramos, and other Poems. By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. (Routledge.)—" Kdramos

" is a characteristic and pleasing poem, and recalls some of the veteran poet's happiest efforts. The conception is felicitous ; a bystander hears a potter singing at his work, and the music transports him to various countries, Western and Eastern, where famous pottery work is done. Mr. Longfellow has always been very successful in painting scenes and characters of this kind, and the exe- cution of " Kdramos " shows no falling-off in his skill. Take, for instance, this picture of Delft

" See ! every house and room is bright With glimmers of reflected light From plates that on the dresser shine ; Flagons to foam with Flemish beer, Or sparkle with the Rhenish wine, And pilgrim flasks with fleurs-de-lis, And ships upon a rolling sea, And tankards pewter-topped, and queer With comic mask and musketeer! Each hospitable chimney smiles A welcome from its painted tiles; The parlor walls, the chamber floors, The stairways and tho corridors, The borders of the garden walks, Are beautiful with fadeless flowers, That raver droop in winds or showers, And never wither on their stalks."

And this, of Bernard Palissy

"Who is it in the suburbs here, This Potter, working with such cheer, In this mean house, this mean attire, His manly features bronzed with fire, Whose figulines and rustic wares Scarce find him bread from day to day ? This madman, as the people say, Who breaks his tables and his chairs To feed his furnace tires, nor cares Who goes tinted if they are fed, Nor who may live if they are dead? This alchemist with hollow cheeks And sunken, searching eyes, who seeks, By mingled earths and ores combined With potency of fire, to find

Some new enamel, hard and bright, His dream, his passion, his delight?

0 Penny! within thy breast Burned the hot fever of unrest; Thine was the prophet's vision, thine The exultation, the divine Insanity of noble minds, That never falters nor abates, But labors and endures and waits, Till all that it foresees it finds, Or what it cannot find creates."

Here, again, is a charming little medallion portrait :— " Behold this cup within whose bowl, Upon a ground of deepest blue With yellow-lustred stars ceerlaid, Colors of every tint and hue Mingle in one harmonious whole! With large blue eyes and steadfast gaze, Her yellow hair in net and braid, Necklace and ear-rings all ablaze With golden lustre o'er the glaze, A woman's portrait; on the scroll, `Cana, the beautiful!' A name

Forgotten save for such brief fame As this memorial can bestow,— A gift some lover long ago

Gave with his heart to this fair dame."

"Birds of Passage" is the title given to a collection of short poems, such as all Mr. Longfellow's readers are familiar with, which describe picturesque scenes and incidents in foreign lands. The poet, though he has not failed to do justice to national themes, has always had what we may call a certain cosmopolitan inspiration. Italy, Spain, France, Flanders, and even Koordistan, supply him with themes, which he has touched with a grace tender or playful, as:the:occasion demanded. Hero lea little picture of Granada —

"But over all the rest supreme

The star of stars, the cynosure, The artist's and the poet's theme,

The young man's vision, the old man's dream,—

Granada by its winding stream, The city of the Moor And there the Alhambra still recalls Aladdin's palace of delight: Allah il Allah ! ' through its halls Whispers the fountain as it falls, The Darro darts beneath its walls, The hills with snow are white.

Ala yes, the hills are white with snow, And cold with blasts that bite and freeze; But in the happy vale below The orange and pomegranate grow, And wafts of air toss to and fro The blossoming almond-trees."

Mr. Stanford and Mr. Wyld send us maps of the island of Cwenes. They are both very complete, and each gives in the margin small sectional maps, coloured so as to show at a glance the cultivated fields, orchards, vineyards, fruit-gardens, woods, waste lands, the geology, maritime roadsteads, and the ancient places. The scale in both is about four miles to the inch. Messrs. Williams and Norgate also send us a "new original map" of the same island, by Professor Kioport, showing the routes in the interior, which have been taken from observations made by Dr. Paul Schroeder, during journeys made in 1870 and 1873. —We have also received :—Vol. IL of The Mill on the Floss (Blackwood and Sons), forming the eighth volume of the neat and handy "Cabinet Edition of the Works of George Eliot."—The Law Magazine and Review for August.—The first number of Rose Belford's Canadian Monthly.—Vol. IV. of Design and Work, new series (Parkesa), a mechanic's journal for workmen of all trades, which so far as we have tested its contents, fully maintains its right to the title it has adopted.—Some illustrated and coloured tablets, evidently for school use (Religions Tract Society), the effect of which is marred by the pictures containing too much red.—The Glasgow and South- Western Railway Panoramic Guide (Bemrose), edited by R. Kemp Philip. This is the latest addition to a series of readable guides, con- taining matter interesting to travellers and tourists. The diagrams and plans should be of groat use to nervous and timid persons at junc- tions and other stations where changes of carriage are necessary.