A SCHOLARLY MUSE.
Poems. By Lady Margaret Saekville. (John Lane. :Is. 6d. net.) —The main feature of this little volume is the accomplishment and scholarly distinction of the verse. Lady Margaret Sack- vine has no robustious "man to sing or melancholy philosophy to expound. There is little of the lyrical cry in the book, and nothing of the intimate appeal of some modern poetry. She chooses her themes for their dramatic possibilities, and elaborates them gravely and calmly with much skill of language and rhythm, and a perfect taste which rejects all that is tawdry and inapposite. Echoes of Swinburne, Morris, and Matthew Arnold are heard at times, but she has a talent quite her own, which may be described as a kind of stately fancy elaborating a picture in detail and finding on occasions a phrase or a line which has the true colour of poetry. The longest piece, "Pan and the Maiden:' is a study of the old conflict in the heart between love and common human feeling and the glamour of the wild life. It is a graceful apollogue, gracefully and tenderly done. Our only complaint is that Lady Margaret Sackville is so accomplished that in a fine passage she is apt to give us a splendid phrase when simplicity would have been more effective. "Lorenzo dei Medici," " Themistoeles." and "The Helots" are careful studies, full of ingenious psychology and a true feeling for drama. But, on the whole, we think the best poem is the one called "The Death of Beatrice," written somewhat after the Rossetti convention, but full of melody and imaginative power.
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