Poems. By Herbert Martyne. (Maclehose, Glasgow.)—Mr. Martyne's lighter poems are
his- best, though he does not succeed when he wishes to be comic. But the first and last pieces of his volume, the "Border- . Raid," in which he visits the homes and haunts of the Ettrick Shepherd and of Scott ; and the" Tour in Memory," where he speaks of Dunblane, - with its memories of Leighton, of Doune, of Callender, and Dunkeld, are felicitous in expression, and run with a smooth easiness which ap- - preaches at least to the positively melodious. Here is a specimen of -his verse,—it speaks of Abbotsford :-
"And here was closed the fruitful life That fell in no ignoble strife ; He saved, and triumphed in the fall, His honour, manhood, fame, his all! List! while your footsteps linger here, Tweed's gentle ripple, low and clear, That soothed the dying Poet's ear, And feel how sad, how true it seems The world and all it has are dreams; But still beneath the autumn sky Flows on that deathless lullaby!"
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