7 MARCH 1925, Page 18

* * * * Sir James Wilson has published an

edition of the Scottish Poems of Robert Burns (Oxford University Press), with an English translation and a phonetic transcript. There can be no charge of vandalism, for the texts are there unaltered ; an 1 it can be nothing but helpful to have the apparatus at hand. Youth and Maidenhood, a book of English -verse com- piled by L. G. Wood (Dent), is a very refreshing and delightful

anthology ; and the compiler has gone commendably far afield to gather good material. We looked in fear lest John Clare's " Sport in the Meadows," one of the loveliest poems in the language, should have been omitted ; but no, Mr. Wood had included it. After this remarkable example of his good taste (for the poem has never been anthologized before) we gave Mr. Wood our full confidence.