"ENGLAND'S DEAD."
(To can Dorris or Inc " flecorsros."1
Bra.,—In your Mane of December 14th a poem under the above title appears, written by Mr. Edward Fuller. As Mr. Fuller. is a member of the staff of the Public Ledger, one would aspect him to know something about English poets and poetesses, ant that a poem with this title had been written by Mrs. Haman:, Perhaps, however, he was attracted by the expressiveness of the title, and thought that after a lapse of eighty-three years probably both Mrs. Heinous and her poem had passed into oblivion. In my case, however, it has never, after a period of sixty 'mire, lost its effect upon me since learning it at school. the P.04, being a great favourite with my sohcolmaetet•. As Mrs. /lemons was born in 1793, and died in 1835, she must hare been moved by the events of the great Napoleonic
struggle. Mr. Fuller has evidently been moved by a similar admiration of the English as demonstrated in the Great War. All the same, he need not have borrowed the title from the writings of one who, as an author, was a great favourite in American literary circles during the last decade of her life. I enclose a full copy of Mrs. Hemans's poem to enable you to reprint it in your columns. Personally I regard it as worthy of this posthumous honour.—I am, Sir, &c., MUM GRIEVE.
S1 Kenmore Street, Pollokshields, Glasgow.
[Mrs. Hemane's poem begins :- "lion of the ocean isle!
Where sleep your mighty dead?
Show me what high and stately pile Is reared o'er Glory's bed.
Go, stranger ! track the deep.
Free, free the white sail spread! Wave may not foam, nor wild wind sweep, Where rest not England's dead."
We should be interested to know whether Mr. Fuller had ever seen it. If be was not, as we suspect, the victim of a literary coincidence, Mr. Fuller may surely be excused for using the same title for a poem on the same subject after the lapse of eighty-three years.—Ea. Spectator.]
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