A Sheaf of Verse. By Henry G. Hewlett. (Henry S.
King.)—This is not one of those volumes, full of crude and immature efforts, which try beyond all other kinds of literary or quasi-literary productions the patience of the critic. Mr. Hewlett, it is clear, has felt, as not a few mon of culture not fully possessed with the poetical spirit feel from time to time, the afflatus of song. The results of this occasional inspiration, covering a period of twenty years and more, he has included in this volume. That it will place him in the sacred quire of poets he does not himself hope, nor would any critic venture to promise him ; but we may safely say so much as this, that English literature is distinctly en- riched by this addition. The book is most modest in size. It does not contain half as many lines as the fervent and fluent versifiers whoae volumes cumber our shelves are wont to pour forth in a year, but everything in it is a work of art, carefully studied, with a purpose, meaning, and form of its own. It contains four ballads, of which, "Zutphen Fight" is the largest and we think, the best ; some twenty sonnets and lyrics ; and miscellaneous poems, which are somewhat more numerous. We have space only for one of the sonnets :—
"COLOURS.
"Not idly deemed the Evangelists of Art, Whose toil, God-moved, has made the Italian clime The Holy-land of painting for all time, That colours have a voice and touch the heart.
In all we feel or think they bear a part.
Who knows not red, Love's emblem ? how sublime Its trumpet's pealing in our human chime ; Blue, which to space the light-struck motes impart, To knowledge vowed and hope's horizon far ; Pink, Nature's type of promise and decay, The daisy's dawn, the sunset of the may ; Life, green ; death, purple ; yellow, like a star, For glory ; white, as saints and maidens are.
This is the alphabet of all they say."
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