P0ETILT.-21. Sicilian Idyll. By John Todhunter. (Elkin Mathews.)—This "Pastoral Play"

pleases in every way. It has an effective dramatic motive, and it is genuine poetry. Two shepherdesses, Amaryllis and Thestylis, have vowed eternal friendship, and enmity to love. Daphnis loves Amaryllis, and Thestylis seeks to console him. Meanwhile, Amaryllis has a suitor of her own, who, by rousing her pride, attracts her love- Jealousy is now brought to bear; in the end, Daphnis transfers his affections to Thestylis, and Amaryllis is fain to own that she has lost her heart to the bold lover who had almost seemed to scorn her. All this business is transacted in verse that is always good, and sometimes, as in the extract about to be given, nothing less than beautiful :—

" 0 Thestylis, Thou knowest full well with what a conquering charm Of gentle tones and looks thou hat beguiled me. Why came thy face haunting the dusk of dreams, Where Amaryllis, like a setting star, Sank out of seeing? All my love for her Seems but the memory of a crocus-flower, Whose transient flame in cold nnbadded woods Heralds the coming spring, to one imbathed In blithe and glowing air, when golden May Peoples with summer lilies plain and hill."

—Thorkeit. By B. Montgomerie Ranking. (Eden, Remington, and Co.)—This is a "saga," in verse of the " Marmion " type. Jeri Fjkrun sends his knight Thorkell to fetch his promised bride, the Lady Bryna. Bryna is absent from the castle when the knight arrives, and her sister Elsa, for a jest, assumes her place. Thorkell falls in love with the sister, whom he is sent next to meet, and. whom he supposes to be free. Various incidents follow, Thorkell always doing his duty as a knight, and keeping his secret hidden till he dies of a wound received in defending his lord's wife. The poem consists of some eight thousand lines, and reads as if it had been written with too easy a pen, and missed due correction, not improbably the ease, as it was Mr. Rankine's last work. Such an expression as "his wrongs to wreak" would hardly have been per- mitted to stand. " Wreak " cannot be used in this sense. There is spirited verse in the volume, and the story is well conceived ; but it will not bear comparison with even the inferior work of Scott.-1 Vision of Empires. By G. H. Cremer. (Parker, Oxford.)—Mr. Cremer gives ns here a volume of -verse, always scholarly and sometimes vigorous. His object, as he de- scribes it in his preface, is to give "a picture of the great Monarchies and Empires which have held at successive epochs the supremacy or leadership of the world, beginning with ancient Egypt and ending with modern England." The subject, it will be seen, is sufficiently large, so large as to overtask, it may be said, any power short of genius This the author cannot be said to possess ; but he has adequate knowledge and feeling, and a, certain power of expression. Sometimes, as in Book v., the imagery employed is almost grotesque ; but the poem as a whole is a meritorious effort, which might have been more highly praised if the author would have chastened his fancy more severely. In the. opening lines of the passage given below, the simile which likens cathedrals to flowers is certainly not happy :— "All hail, dear minsters of my native land,

Sown through its length and breadth, like flowers divine Bright with the smile of Ood's own Face, and straight From Paradise transplanted to our earth

How can I rightly tell your varied grace?

Thine, Durham. with thy towers massive and strong Reared on a rocky terrain), at whose feet Winds mid his verdant banks the slender Wear? Or thine, fair Lincoln, which at misty morn Stands like a castle, by no hand of man Fixed in the floating clouds? or thine, great York, If not the queen for beauty, yet the king For size colossal of all English shrines? What flower of architecture, more complete In rhythmic union of well-ordered parts, Sprung from the brain of Grecian Phidiaa, Than Sarnm's lovely temple ? where the spire, Dlpping its fairy needle in the clouds. Seems but the chief bloom of some noble plant, Spreading out leaves, flower, stem to one fair who!e P"

—Oak and Maple. By Mrs. H. Coghill. (Kegan Paul, Trench, and Co.)—These verses are described as "English and Canadian," but for the most part they might have been written anywhere. I descriptive poem of some merit, entitled" In the Canadian Woods," may be found near the end of the volume. Perhaps as favour- able a specimen of Mrs. Coghill's verse as can be found is the following :—

"TEE DAT DAWN.

Is when the heavy shades of night Begin to yield before the dawn, And first a grey and misty light Cre,ps slowly over grove and lawn, Until above the purple hills Long level rays their glory ponr. And light the whole wide circle fills, And life, where all seemed dead before.

So slowly bright'ning o'er the soul Until the shadows flee away,

While night's dark clouds asunder roll And tale amid the perfect day, Dost Then, 0 Sun and Light Divine, In growing splendour clearly rise, And bid the heavenly landscape shine

Refulgent on our wondering eyes."

This is sufficiently well written, but has little force or colour.— _Pine, Rose, and Fleur de Lis By S. Frances Harrison. (Hart and Co., Toronto.)—This is a volume with plenty of local colour. The spirit and tone throughout is genuinely Canadian. The principal poem, consisting of some fifty short pieces, is entitled "Down the River" (the "river," it should be said, is the St. Law- rence). French models of versification are imitated, appro- priately enough, as the belongings of the poem are French, and not unsuccessfully. S. Frances Harrison (the feminine is a little puzzling, in view of the general tone of the verse) might, with practice, even become something like a Canadian Longfellow. Here is one of the fifty-two pieces which make up "Down the River : "—

"AT STE. SCHOLABTIQOF. The faint warm glimpse of an olive cheek We catch in the light of the evening sun At a casement in Ste. Scholastique.

By a profile perfect if hardly Greek We are not alone dismay'd, undone— The faint warm glimpse of an olive cheek,

Do other travellers wistfully seek,

And scholars some terrible risks have run 'Neath a casement in Ste. Scholastique.

The tint is so rich—the hair so sleek!

As the curtains move, the glimpse is won, The faint warm glimpse of an olive cheek !

Can it be, as they say, that in less than a week That black-ha ir'd nymph will pose as a nun At a casement in Ste. Scholautique?

fat Nanon will merge into Marie meek? If so, pass on, and devoutly shun

The faint warm glimpse of an olive cheek at a casement in Ste. Scholastive."