MR. MEREDITH'S LAST POEMS.* These last poems show that the

voice of the master kept to the end its splendid resonance and his heart its unconquerable

• Last Poems. By George Meredith. London: A. Constable and Co. [46. 6d. net.)

youth. In the sixty pages of this little book there is nothing which repeats his highest poetic achievement. That was, indeed, to be expected, for the strength• for ; great flights was ebbing when he wrote. But the spirit is untouched, and not only the philosophy remains, but much of the melody which fifty years ago seemed to many the authentic voice of youth and spring. "Youth and Age" renews the confession of faith of "Love in the Valley " :— " Once I was part of the music I heard

On the boughs or sweet between earth and sky, For joy of the beating of wings on high • My heart shot into the breast of the bird.

I hear it now and I see it fly And a life in wrinkles again is stirred,

My heart shoots into the breast of the bird, As it will for sheer love till the last long sigh."

He could write a lyric, such as "The Years had Worn theix Season's Belt," which has all the magic of his earliest work. But, as was natural, in these last days Mr. Meredith's thoughts turned from the personal to the national, and the

finest poems are concerned with the State. Nelson has never been celebrated more nobly than in the two magnificent poems, "October 21, 1905," and "Trafalgar .Day." In the sonnet "The Warning" with one of his strange yet pregnant metaphors he points the danger of a too vaulting Imperial

ambition. In "The Call" he pleads for a people in arms,

for the insurance of peace by true national defenele. We could wish that its stanzas were imprinted, on the heart of

every citizen:—

"Our people one! Nor they with strength. Dependent on a single arm ;

Alert, and braced the whole land's length, Rejoicing in their manhood's charm For friend or foe ; to succour, not to harm.

Has ever weakness won esteem ?

Or counts it as a prized ally 1 •

They who have ma in History deem . It ranks among the slavish fry

Whose claims to live justiciary Fates deny."

"The Voyage of the' Ophir ' "contains one stanza which sums

up in final words the meaning of Empire at 'it highest r "Australian, Canadian, To tone old veins With streams of youth, Our trust be on the best in man Henceforth, and we shall prove that truth„ Prove to a world of brows clown-bent That in the Britain thus endowed, Imperial means beneficent,

And strength to service vowed." .