2 NOVEMBER 1867, Page 21

Constance Lora, and other Poems. By Robert C. Caldwell. (A.

W. Bennett.)—Ono of those books of verse which it is difficult to blame, and impossible to praise. Yet Mr. Caldwell has once or twice attained a higher level than that of mediocrity. We might almost quote his stanzas called "The Gate of Tears ;" we should certainly have no diffi- culty in singling them out for praise from the other contents of the volume. But even here the expression is hard and laboured, and in most of the other poems such faults exist without the compensating merits.