2 JULY 1881, Page 23

—The Conquest, and Other Poems. By Thomas Carlos Wilkinson. (Hunt

and Co.)—We cannot quite make out whether "The Conquest" is by Mr. Wilkinson or by his father, to whose memory it is dedicated. Whoever the author, the poem may be easily described. It is of the kind that is sent in for the Newdigate prize at Oxford, but not good enough to succeed. Now and then we get a vigorous couplet, which recalls Pope ; but these couplets are few, and far between. Here is a specimen of Harold's speech, when the relics on which he has un- wittingly sworn are discovered to him :-

" Can ambushed relics more than honour bind Or friendship's plighted hand, the noble mind ? Know! my free spirit scorns thy monkish art, And England claims the homage of my heart."