The Story of Queen Isabel, and Other Versys. By "M.
S." (Bell and Daldy.)—There is considerable merit in the verses contained in this small volume. The best of " M. S.'s " productions is that which gives the title to his book—a poem in blank verse, perhaps a thousand lines long, of which the wife of King John of England is the heroine. It contains some good thoughts, very fairly expressed. Take, for instance, the following :— " There are such things as empty lives, and these Are drearier than full tombs."
And this :— "But then, As a branch stoops with over-weight of snow, Lets down its burden, and starts back again Noiselessly and unwounded to its place, She dropp'd the cold oppression from her heart, And rose, and seemed unscathed."
The shorter pieces which make up this volume scarcely come up to the same standard, though some of them are not deficient either in music or vigour. " Out of the Depths " is a rather feeble but quite distinct echo of Mrs. Barrett Browning's "Cry of the Human.'
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