2 AUGUST 1879, Page 24

Teroveam's Wife, and other Poems. (C. Kogan Paul and Co.) —

Joroveam, it should be explained, is ho who is more commonly known as Jeroboam. The writer gives her view of the journey to consult Ahijah about the sick child, and gives it with some vigour of expres- sion, though in a somewhat jerky style. The second poem is an " idyll " of English country-life, which is not made more attractive by the very prosaic verso in which it is told. What strange 1Mes, for instance, are the two last ?- " Death, the Reconciler, came at last, And took up all her trials, and made them things Whereon to rest the softness of his wings."

Ten-syllabled rhymed verse, written iu this flowing fashion, is sadly apt to lose all strength without gaining freedom. The occasional poems have merit, especially a certain power of describing nature; but they occasionally contain strange words :-

" Here plays the rabbit by his home. Right glad is he the rain has come

Upon the field. Dragging the long grass 'twine his paws, He cats, and licks his dewy claws, And then has media."