4 MARCH 1865, Page 19

Arno's Waters, and Other Poems. By Frances Jane;Forsayth. (Saun- ders,

Otley, and Co.)—These are very instructive poem; from which the inquiring mind may learn a great deal. The information is often puzzling, but generally novel. For instance, we are told that near Arno's waters there is a forest, and that

"There in unfamiliar form does the patient camel roam,

Quietly 'neath softer skies minding of his desert home."

What a rustic simplicity, what an odour of the woods there is about that homely phrase "minding of his desert home !" But why is the camel's form unfamiliar? Not to himself surely ? and if Mrs. Forsayth means that she is not accustomed to see camels in Europe in that shape, will she tell us any shape in which she is accustomed to see them ? Then, again, why "softer skies ?"—softer than what ? and if they had been harder than the unknown something, would the camel have minded of his desert home restlessly ? Another innocent peculiarity of this lady's is to give you a sentence with no verb in it, as when she writes of Michael Angelo- " The upward springing touches, The varied dreams of fancy, Of marble and of art, Which with him lived not apart."

But we abandon that senteace to Mr. Home:and his spirits. It is too deep for mere human beings.