POETRY.
The Burning of Moscow. By W. H. SEYMOUR FITZGERALD, Oriel College.
Sunday. A Poem, in three Cantos. By the Author of "The Mechanic's Saturday Night." Wesleyan Parsons. A Satire. By R. OTLEY. The Muse and Poetess, a Lesson from Nature; and Other Poems: By Emmy D * • • s.
Mr. FITZGERALD'S Burning Of Moscow is the Oxford Prize Poem for the present year; and a creditable and even a promising attempt. The lines descriptive of the French army's first approach to the city are something above the average of prize verses, though the flight is not long sustained. Sunday describes, in Spenserean stanzas, the Sabbath enjoyments of a working mechanic; intermingled with some reflections on the hardships which Leset the poor, and on the Pharisaical attempts of Saint ANDREW and the street-preachers to engloom the day. There is some strength, and some coarseness, but little poetry, in the piece. Mr. OTLEY'S Wesleyan Parsons is a rabid attack on the Conference, and all ministers who acknowledge its authority. It is amusing from the writer's fury, but too exaggerated and undiscriminating to excite any emotion save laughter, even in those he attacks. In an invocatory line, the author wishes he had the powers of JuVENAL—" Oh for a Decian muse, that I may sing !"—and, for the sake of his readers, we wish so too. The volume of Miss Ereirat D * * * * is a collection of occasional poems, published at the request of friends. The lady says they are valuable ; but she must permit us to observe that they are not critics.
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