CURRENT LITERATURE.
Poems of the Inner Life. Selected chiefly from Modern Authors. Now edition, revised and enlarged. (Sampson Low.)—It is an easy task to make a fairly good selection of poems. The field of English poetry is so extensive and so full of golden grain, that he must be a dull man or a careless gleaner who cannot select a variety of sheaves well worthy of the storing. On the other hand, it is an extremely difficult task to choose poems out of this wealthy harvest-field with a distinct purpose, and with such critical judgment as shall make the garnering of perma- nent worth. A few such collections we possess, and they are perhaps among the volumes taken most frequently from the shelves and carried about in the pocket. Mr. Palgrave's "Golden Treasury of Songs and Lyrics," for example, is a priceless little book, which bears the mark throughout of consummate taste and extensive knowledge. Again, Dr. Trench, in his "Household Book of English Poetry." shows that he has walked in paths rarely frequented, so that the reader who follows him finds his way many times into a comparatively new region. These books are quite beyond the range of the ordinary compiler, and praise similar in character, if not in degree, may be awarded to the careful editor of the little volume before us. "it is a collection," he writes, "not of sacred poetry, in the usual technical sense of the term, but of poems which, without being ecclesiastical or theological, may be called religious, in so far as they have power to strengthen religious faith or to deepen religious impressions, and to express or suggest the spiritual significance of Nature and of Human Life." We may observe that verse which is essentially theological or ecclesiastical is generally far enough removed from the domain of poetry, but between the spirit of religion and the spirit of poetry there is no kind of dissonance, and the editor's plan, while it restricts him in one direction, gives him ample space in another. He has done his work with great judgment, and with a fresh- ness which even a hasty glance at the contents of the volume will make evident to the reader. Lowell, Aubrey de Vero, Dante, G. Rossetti, Matthew Arnold, W. B. Scott, Robert Buchanan, W. C. Roscoe, and Arthur Hugh Clough are among the poets from whose works the anony- mous editor has selected poems which show a real power of spiritual insight or feeling." Authors less known also contribute several thoughtful and highly suggestive pieces ; and while there are many contributions here which, like some of the best loved poems of Words- worth, must necessarily appear in any selection of the kind, the general character of the volume is marked by originality of choice. We may add that the second edition has been carefully revised, that many new poems have been added, and a considerable number omitted which had a place in the first edition.
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