The Boy's Own Poetry - Book. Edited by E. Davenport. (Griffith, Farran,
and Co.)—The editor has collected here between two and three hundred poetical extracts of various kinds, best to be seen from an enumeration of the classes into which they are divided in the " List of Contents." These, then, are " Ballads and Lyrics of War," "Heroes in Real Life," "Poetical Tales," "Boy Life," " Songs for Every Day," " Miscellaneous Poems," and " Humorous Fancies." A few words from the preface explain the editor's purpose :—" It is not in the ordinary sense an educational one ; it does not profess to give the best work of the authors represented, but that which is most appropriate to the age, the attainments, and the capacities of a juvenile public. In fact, this is meant as a book for the play-room rather than for the study. It has been the compiler's aim to include only such poems as will furnish to boys in general pleasant recreation for their quieter holiday hours." We noticed recently a somewhat similar com- pilation by the Rev. F. Langbridge, and wished it success. This wish we repeat for the volume before us. There is plenty of unoccupied room in most boys' minds ; and we cannot think of any better way of filling it up than with such really good and well-chosen matter as we get here. Any elder person, having it in his mind to make a present to a boy-friend, could not do better than choose a volume of this kind. Volumes so given have a good chance of being read, even though they may have for con- tents what a boy, if wholly left to himself, would hardly have chosen..
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