CURRENTT LITERATURE.
Poems. By William Hay Leith Tester (La Tests). (Elgin : Jeans and Grant.)—Elgin seems to possess a hammerman with a very copious flow of rhyme, sometimes, but not always, accompanied by reason. According to his preface, he works both with hammer and pen " to men' the condition o' the motherless twa" children that he has been left with. He certainly has produced a remarkable volume for a man in such a position, showing a considerable amount of reading and command of language, disfigured in places by coarseness of taste and expression. The following stanzas from a poem called "Dreaming," and addressed, it would appear, to his wife, have some pathos :—
" I can see thee point thy finger—
Thou art beckoning me to come, Ah, ye wonder why I linger, Why the voice ye loved is dumb ; Not yet, a little longer Ere I drink the bitter cup, Till the twain ye left are stronger, Till the motherless get up.
"0 were I now to leave them To the world's care and wreck, How sadly it would grieve them, And their little hearts would break, And pine thro' cold and hunger, For the best of friends forget.
0 no ! a little longer, For I dare not leave them yet."
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