Holiday Recreations. By Alexander Skene Smith. (Chapman and Hall.)—It was
a decided mistake to begin a volume of poems with a poem like "Arran ;" " Arran " is—well, mere doggerel. This is rude, perhaps, but we cannot help it. The "Jubilee Ode" is fair as a commonplace ode, and not without some striking thoughts. Nor is the "Legend of Old Cambus " without some imaginative power. But the other poems, even the translations from the classics, which should at least have some force, we cannot admire. Mr. Smith has a poverty of language, and nowhere is this better shown than in the paraphrases of the Psalms. Mr. Smith calls them unsuccessful, and yet he prints them. What are we to say to this ?— "A Septuagenarian
One frequently may see; An Octogenarian If one should live to be."
Personally speaking, we should prefer any version to this, though it is not without a certain humour. Again, here is a verse of a lament over a death by drowning :-
"But in the midst of youthful life— With health his cheek was glowing— And, dreaming not of death's dread strife His arm was busy rowing."
This is decidedly poor taste for a lament. There is, indeed, about these two extracts a combined echo of Tom Hood and Max Adeler that is both perplexing and amusing.
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