Three little volumes of verse may be mentioned together. All,
we think, in one shape or another, have already appeared in print. A Little Child's Wreath, by Elizabeth Rachel Chapman, is No. XXI. in the series of "Flowers of Parnassus" (1s. net). The author, who was related to the Gurneys of Earlham, died at an early age after a life of considerable intellectual activity. Perhaps her best known work was the "Companion to 'In Memoriam?" pronounced by Tennyson to be "the best [commentary, on his work] ever done." We may quote the charming introductory poem :— " Our darling loved the meadows and the trees ; Great London jarred him ; he was ill at ease And alien in the stir, the noise, the press ; The city vexed biz perfect gentleness.
So, loving him, we sent him from the town To where the autumn leaves were falling brown, And the November primrose, pale and dim, In his own garden.plot delighted him.
There, like his flowers, be would thrive and grow, We in our fondness thought. But God said No, Your way is loving, but not wholly wise ;
My way is beet—to give him Paradise."
The sonnets that follow are constructed after the Shakespearian model.—Hymns and Narrative Verses for Children, by Mary C. Rowsell (S. C. Brown, Laugham, and Co., (31) ; and The Soul's Lore: a Garland of Verse for the Christian Year, by E. Hermitage Day (G. J. Palmer and Sons).
Previous page
