LATTER-DAY LYRICS.*

Tms attractive-looking volume is, we conclude, given to the public in order to exhibit the best and not the worst productions of the writers who contribute to it. Mr. Adams wishes, no doubt, to show in some measure what fruit of English poetry the later years of our century have yielded, but he observes what, indeed, the reader will speedily discover on turning over the pages, that the collection does not profess to be representative of living poets in the sense of illustrating exhaustively their peculiar powers. Mr. Adams adds :—" The editor's desire has been rather to avoid the poems which are generally adduced as speci- mens of the writers' style of thought and of expression, in favour of those which, whilst still characteristic of their authors, have the merit of being at least comparatively fresh and novel. To the best of his belief, this volume does not contain more than half-a-dozen poems which have appeared in any previous collec- tion." If the editor's chief object has been novelty, in this object we may safely say he has succeeded ; but if the volume be at the same time intended to convey a fair impression of the lyrical genius of the age, it is, we think, quite as obvious that the collection is a failure. Mr. Adams has reprinted some lovely poems, worthy of their writers ; but he has filled his pages also with a mass of verse which shows at best the skilful writing of clever men, who have amused a leisure-hour in turn- ing rhymes. Lines that will pass muster in a newspapereand may even deserve to be called pretty when regarded as occasional * Latter-Day Lyrics; being Poerns of Sentiment and Reflection. By Living Writers. Selected and arranged, with Notes, by W. Davenport Adams. With a Note on some Foreign Forms of Verse, by Austin Dobson. London: Chatto and Windus 1878.

verses, are simply out of place in a volume of this kind. Every page that does not contain genuine poetry is not only superfluous, but destructive. Mediocrity in a volume of " specimens " is in- tolerable, and in the attempt to be comprehensive, and perhaps complimentary, the editor has greatly diminished the value of a book which might have been praiseworthy and precious. There are few signs here of acumen, and the lack of critical judgment may be observed in the notes, as well as in the text. Good poets are sometimes represented by poor specimens of their work. Weak poems are inserted, and the remarks made upon them are weak also. Mr. Adams, moreover, comments, no doubt unintentionally, upon really admirable poems in a way which is scarcely likely to be acceptable to their writers. We weary, too, of such remarks as that a certain poet is one of the most able of the new generation of poets ; that another is one of the most attractive of our meditative poets ; that a third is amongst the most thoughtful of the younger singers ; that Mr.

Rossetti's sonnets are full of masterly expression ; that Bryant is perhaps the most truly national of all American poets, a some- what questionable assertion ; and that a sonnet printed on page 244 is "not so thoroughly satisfying" as another by the same writer, "but elegant, nevertheless."

The mention of Bryant reminds us that Mr. Adams includes among his lyrics the verses of a few American poets. He would have done better to have let American poetry alone, since his choice is so limited as to exclude many of the most original and some of the most popular poets of that country. Neither Whittier nor Whitman have a place here. With regard to the latter, there are strong differences of opinion, and Mr. Adams may be fully justi- fied in not accepting the verdict of some of Whitman's admirers ; but Whittier is a genuine poet, and be has assuredly a better claim to a place in this selection than his countrymen, Aldrich or Stedman. Mr. Adams's sins, however, of omission are less important than his sins of commission, and we miss few names of modern poets and versifiers, with the exception of Miss Thompson, Allison Hughes, Ross Neil, R. H. Home, and William Davies, whose "Shepherd's Garden," it has been truly said, is "full of sweetest flowers and scents, and of musical notes fresh as from the happy throats of blackbird, nightingale, and thrush."

A glance at the index of writers suggests the thought that Mr.

Adams's aim has been to favour several comparatively young poets, whose eccentricities are as remarkable, probably more

remarkable, than their genius. Mr. Rossetti, too, and the poets that may be roughly said to belong to his school, or to that of Mr. Swinburne, are far more largely represented than poets who, like Archbishop Trench and Sir Henry Taylor, be- long to an earlier date. Strange to say, while Mr. Rossetti, as well as his sister, occupy a considerable space, Mr.

Swinburne sings but twice, less frequently than the Earl of Southesk or Mr. Theophile Marzials. Mrs. Webster is well represented here, so is Mr. Matthew Arnold ; Mr. Dobson and Mr. Locker are obvious favourites of the editor, and we are glad_ to see that among the sonnet-writers the Rev. Charles Tennyson Turner has a place. His happiness of touch, his naturalness of expression, his love of rural beauty, and his appreciation of the life of childhood give to many of this poet's sonnets a genuine charm. Mr. Adams has selected two, one of which, if we remember rightly, appeared in a periodical within a recent date. It is called " Letty's Globe," and readers who may remember the poem will be glad to listen to it once more :—

"When Letty had scarce pass'd her third glad year,

And her young, artless words began to flow, One day we gave the child a coloned sphere Of the wide earth, that she might mark and know By tint and outline all its sea and land.

She patted all the world; old empires peep'il Between her baby fingers; her soft har.d Was welcome at all frontims ; how she leap'd And laugh'd and pi fatted in her pride of bliss!

But when we turned her sweet, unlearned eye

On our own isle, she raised a joyous cry, Oh yes! I see it,—Letty's home is there!'

And while she hid all England with a kiss, Bright over Europe fell her golden hair."

Two charming snatches of song, by Mr. George Meredith, both of them new to us, prove, if proof be needed, that this singularly clever novelist—who might, were he less wayward, be as welcome to the general reader as he is in his way esteemed by the critic—

possesses also the genuine gift of song. The first piece that we shall quote has no title, and needs none :—

" Love within the lover's breast Burns like Hesper in the West,

O'er the ashes of the sun,

Till the day and night are done ; Then, when dawn drives up his ear,—

Lo ! it is the morning star.

Love! thy love pours down on mine As the sunlight on the vine,

As the snow rill on the vale, As the salt breeze on the sail, As the song unto the bird, On my lips thy name is heard.

As a dewdrop on the rose, In thy heart my passion glows ; As a skylark to the sky, Up into thy breast I fly ; As a sea-shell of the sea,

Ever shall I sing of thee."

The next piece, called "Violets," is as sweet and fragrant as the flower which inspired the song :—

" Violets, shy violets!

How many hearts with thee compare!

Who hide themselves in thickest green, And thence unseen, Ravish the enraptured air With sweetness, dewy fresh and rare!

Violets, shy violets!

Human hearts to me shall be Viewless violets in the grass ; And as I pass, Odours and sweet imagery

Will wait on mine and gladden me I"

The brightly-written essay on "Some Foreign Forms of

Verse," by Mr. Austin Dobson, will be read with interest and curiosity by many who are sceptical with regard to the success-

ful use of such forms as the Rondel, the Rondeau, the Triolet, the Virelai, and the Chant Royal, by English poets. The sonnet, no doubt, is a foreign importation, which has become completely naturalised on our soil ; but the sonnet, brief though it be, and difficult though it be, affords scope for the noblest poetical ex- pression; whereas if we except the Chant Royal, the intricate mani- pulation demanded by these forms appears inimical to genuine

inspiration. That they afford scope for brilliant exercises in verse none will deny who read the "examples," by Mr. Payne, Mr. Gosse, and others. Our language does not allow of the repeated rhymes required, for example, by the Rondeau Redouble, in which all the stanzas contain but two rhymes, which follow one another with wearisome iteration ; and Mr. Como Monkhouse, who gives a

rather foolish specimen of this form, is forced to use rhymes not generally considered permissible. However, there is one, and but one, satisfactory answer to objections like these. A noble poem written in any one of these forms will go far towards making that form acceptable, and the critic who deems such an achieve- ment impossible will be then, of course, compelled to acknow- ledge his error. Mr. Gosse, Mr. Payne, and Mr. Dobson, brilliantly as they have written in these French metres, cannot as yet be said to have fully conquered the difficulties of their task. No doubt, as Mr. Dobson observes, some of these rhythms "are admirable

vehicles for the expression of trifles, or jeer desprit." On the other hand, the exigencies of rhyme occasionally force the gentle- men who use them to write nonsense.