7 NOVEMBER 1868, Page 22

Lyra Sacra Americana. (Sampson Low and Co.)—America as yet has

no very deep fountains of poetry from which to draw. She gives na of her best as far as she can, and on the whole the gift is a worthy one. In this little volume there are several pieces of real merit and beauty. Phcebe Cary writes verses about which we only regret the im- possibility of inserting them at length. Mrs. Sigourney has lines which may stand side by side with our best hymns. Whittier and Pierpoint, too, have both contributed good verses ; but there is only too much which rises at best to a very low level. Notwithstanding all that Emerson and others have said or written, it remains true that the inner depths of spiritual life have yet to be broken up in America, and till they are, with much of their poetry as with much of their theology, we must rest unsatisfied.