ADAMS, OSCAR Fay. Post-Laureate Idyls, and Other Poems. Boston: D. Lothrop & Co., 1886. 16m0, pp. 166.

IBID. Miscellaneous poems.

TUCKER, MARY FRANCES. Miscellaneous poems.

RICH, CAROLINE W. D. Poem. Written for the Centennial Celebration of the town of Turner, Maine: Portland, Maine: Author's edition, 1886. pp. 14.

IBID. Happenings. Imp. 4to. Auburn: Lakeside Press, 1888.

IBID. Miscellaneous poems.

SPALDING, RT. Rev. J. L., D. D. (“Henry Hamilton.") America, and Other Poems. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1885. 18mo, pp. 210.

IBID. The Poet's Praise. New York and London: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1887. 18mo, pp. 157.

MONROE, WILL S. Miscellaneous poems.

FISHER, MRS. A. H. ("Helen Hawthorne.") Miscellaneous poems.

MARSTON, PHILIP BOURKE. Song-Tide, and Other Poems. Second edition. London: Chatto & Windus, 1874. 12mo, pp. xi and 210.

IBID. All in All. Poems and Sonnets. London: Chatto & Windus, 1875. 12mo, pp. xi and 180.

IBID. Wind-Voices. Boston: Roberts Brothers. 12mo, pp. x and 176.

IBID. Miscellaneous poems.

DIXON, CONSTANCE E. The Chimneypiece of Bruges, and Other Poems. London: Elliot Stock,

IBID. Accolon of Gaul, with Other Poems. Louisville: John P. Morton & Co., 1889. 12m0, pp. vii and 164.

IBID. Lyrics and Idyls. Limited edition. Louisville: John P. Morton & Co., 1890. 16m0, pp. 194. Ed

DAVIS, SLACK. London and Other Poems. ited by his daughter Lilian Slack-Davis. Pittsburgh: J. R. Weldin & Co., 1890. 16m0, pp. 99. MCAULEY, BELLE G. Miscellaneous poems. MCGUIRE, MARY. Miscellaneous poems. HOLAHAN, MARTHA EILEEN. Nondescript, or the Passionate Recluse. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Co., 1889. 16m0, pp. 106.

CHAPIN, BELA. Miscellaneous poems.

LINN, EDITH WILLIS. Poems. Buffalo: Charles Wells Moulton, 1891. 16mo, pp. 176.

PAINE, ALBERT BIGELOW. Miscellaneous poems. YOUNG, OSCAR E. Seaside Songs and Woodland Whispers. Buffalo: Charles Wells Moulton, 1891. 12mo, pp. 256.

TYNAN, ANNIE E. Miscellaneous poems. O'BRIEN, MARGARET E. Miscellaneous poems. JULIAN, ISAAC H. Miscellaneous poems.

BRYANT, WILLIAM CULLEN. Poetical Works. Edited by Parke Godwin. With copious notes. Two portraits engraved on steel. New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1890. Sq. 8vo, 2 vols.

NOTES.

DAVIS. "A Song of Sunrise." This is the last poem written by Slack Davis, and was found by his daughter, among his papers, after his death. It was written only a week before his death, and it is believed the poem was not finished.

MCAULEY. "Decoration Day" was prompted by Mrs. McAuley's own experience as a soldier's widow.

COLBY. " 'Pygmalion and Galatea " Pygmalion, a celebrated Greek sculptor, became enamored of a beautiful statue of ivory which he had made. According to the story Zeus was so affected by his passion that he endued it with life.

D'ISRAELI. "Wellington" Lord Beaconsfield, even his most ardent admirers would admit, gave no evidence that he was possessed of the creative faculty in verse; an ardent imagination he undoubtedly had. He wrote, so far as is known, only two

sonnets

BINYON. “The Past, Asleep." This sonnet was written when the author was in his sixteenth year.

LANDOR. "To Robert Browning." It is well known that not only did Landor never write a sonnet, but that he expressed his determination never to do so. But he came very near to inconsistency when he addressed to Robert Browning this beau-tiful fourteen line poem in blank verse.

WATTS. "In a Graveyard." This poem was called forth by the death of the novelist and poet, Oliver Madox Brown. Mr. Watts and Rossetti had spent the night previous to Oliver Brown's funeral in Rossetti's studio in talk upon the sad mystery of the young novelist's early death, and on the drive back from the "place of sleep" this sonnet was composed by Mr. Watts.

DOBSON. "Don Quixote." Mr. Dobson has not written many sonnets, but judging by the one given it is not for lack of ability.

FANE. "Ad Matrem." It was the custom of the Hon. Julian Fane to address a sonnet to his mother on each successive birthday. He had a very reverent love for his mother, and "Ad Matrem" was one of those birthday greetings. Mr. Fane was born in 1827 and died in 1870.

115

David Gray

His sonnets,

GRAY. "The Thrush's Song." was born in 1838 and died in 1861. as sonnets, are generally unsatisfactory. full of morbid sensibility, with a keen note of pain from a bitterly disappointed heart.

They are

BLIND. "The Dead." This sonnet has an interesting history. Shortly after the death of the Bishop of Manchester, it was reprinted without the author's knowledge and sent in the name of one thousand operatives to Mrs. Frazer, the muchesteemed Bishop's widow. It is the lot of few authors to have so genuine, unsolicited, and unexpected a compliment paid to them, in this case all the more remarkable from the fact of Miss Blind having been quite unknown to those who paid the compliment. W. S.

CRAIGMYLE. "Cleopatra." The author of this poem was quite young when the sonnet was written. It is taken from “Poems and Translations," a volume of verse written in early youth.

BARLOW. "God and Woman." This poem, as it was originally written, was published in Vol. III, No. 4, THE MAGAZINE OF POETRY, page 411. In its original form the author felt that the idea he meant to convey had not been fully wrought out,-the omnipotence of God and the loveliness of woman. In one or two instances exception has been taken to this sonnet, and with a view of justifying not only the editor, but the author, the editor wrote Mr. Barlow concerning it, and appended hereto is a letter received from Mr. Barlow in reply:

28 NEW CAVENDISH STREET, PORTLAND PLACE, W.) DECEMBER 8, 1891.

DEAR MADAM: I am sorry that the "Philistines" have taken hold of you in respect to my sonnet! I will write a few words about it, leaving it to you to use any part of my letter which you may please.

Firstly. The sonnet endeavored to convey the idea you speak of in your letter-God is represented as Himself "astonished " at the final result of His evolutionary method, pursued by Him patiently through ceaseless centuries, till at last the long, strange process culminated in the appearance on the planet of man and woman. "God saw everything that He had made, and behold, it was very good," says the Book of Genesis. I only add to this as regards the loveliest portion of creation, "not only good, but surprisingly good."

Secondly. It must be remembered that the current orthodox conception of God as a Being "without body, parts or passions," (see Article I.), reduces Him to a cipher-He becomes a mere bundle of negatives. The sonnet in question assails this foolish and inartistic conception of God. The Greeks have been attacked for their passionate and hot-blooded theology, but, speaking poetically, they were nearer the truth than we are. If they degraded the gods by attributing human passions to them, a point which admits of argument, we have, on the other hand, degraded both man and God. When a portion of the human race came to the conclusion embodied in the First Article of the Christian Creed-that God must be a Being "without body, parts or passions," an enormous step was taken towards

the degradation of that race, and of woman. Underneath the metaphysical phraseology of that article lurks, only thinly veiled, the idea that passion as such, is wrong, and that woman is impure. All the impurity and coarseness of thought belong to the impugners of my sonnet, and to those who think as they do. Thirdly. I hold that the result of immense and far-reaching evolutionary processes, which we call LOVE, is so wonderful, so significant, so invaluable a result, that it is perfectly justifiable, as a poetical figure of speech, to represent God as "envying" man the possession and enjoyment of the fruits of that result. More-if God be indeed the bloodless phantom the churches represent Him to be, I think that He would, literally, "envy man." But of course the probability is that that metaphysical conception of God is wholly erroneous.

Fourthly. I intend in the sonnet to bring out the idea-a true idea I think that in the long historic struggle, if we may so depict the process, between God and man for the possession of woman, it is always man who is really the victor. And to the end of time it will be the same. Appearances sometimes seem for a moment to point the other way-but they are deceptive. To man woman has given, and will always give, her youth, her beauty, her infinite sweetness, and, above all, her passionate love. To heaven woman gives not a passionate love, but the ghost of a passion; not her youth, but her widowhood; not the glory of her beauty, but the dim religious sentiment of her old age. If God and man could be conceived as rival beings standing opposite to one another in the conflict, which would they rather choose; sunlight or moonlight, woman or the ghost of woman; June or December? Can there be a moment's doubt?

All this, and a great deal more, I meant to suggest by the sonnet of which we are speaking. But probably the critics to whom you refer, being wholly superficial beings "without body, parts or passions," have taken a wholly superficial view. Curiously enough I have been lately rewriting and remodeling the very sonnet in question, and I have embodied the same idea in a somewhat less crude form. I enclose the newer version. If you could kindly find space to print it, it might interest those of your readers whom the original version has interested. If any "Philistines" can be found to object to the idea in its later form, all I can say of them is that they had better be left to their own devices, and allowed to wither away in loveless solitude! I am, dear madam, very gratefully,

GEORGE BARLOW.

DE VERE. "The Children Band." The subject chosen by its author for this pathetic sonnet is one that has been little handled by writers. In all, some 30,000 children (ranging in age from twelve to sixteen) from France-crying aloud on their march, "Rendez-vous, Seigneur Jésus, votre Croix sainte!"—and about 20,000 from Germany, followed the lead of the fanatic apostate monk Jacob, or, as he was more widely known, Job. Misery and fatigue, hunger and exposure, robbers and brutalities, caused the deaths of many hundreds of the poor children who had been the first to respond to the appeal for a new crusade made by Pope Innocent III. early in the thirteenth century. A great number reached Marseilles, and were there inveigled on board seven large ships by two scoundrels, Hugues Lefer and Guillaume Leporc; two of these vessels were wrecked, but the remaining five reached Egypt, where the unfortunate children were sold into Saracenic slavery. The youthful

martyrs were avenged by the new general crusade that shortly followed, inaugurated at the Council of Latian, convoked by Innocent III. W. S.

DIXON. "Humanity." Mr. Hall Caine, a generous and discriminating critic, says: "Canon Dixon affords probably by far the most striking instance of a living poet deserving the highest recognition yet completely unrecognized."

ELLISON. "A Sunset Thought." In 1833 there were published at Malta two eccentrically worded and still more eccentrically printed volumes of verse, entitled "Madmoments: a FirstVerse Attempt by a Bornnatural." To this strange heading was appended the following: "Addressed respectfully to the lightheaded of society at large; but intended more particularly for the use of that world's madhouse, London. By Henry Ellison, of Christ Church, Oxford." But the poems in these two volumes are very far from being incoherent or inartistically outrés. The printing and general arrangement are so far out of the common that a certain artificial air of strangeness does certainly seem to characterize the poems; but the strangeness is only superficial. I have seen but one copy of this strange book-that in the British Museum Library-to which my attention was called by Dr. Garnett. Some years later the same author published his "Touches on the Harp of Nature,” and, in 1884, "Poems of Real Life," the lastnamed containing many of the sonnets which appeared in 'Madmoments." Perhaps no writer of genuine capacity has ever written so much or lived so long and attracted so little attention. W. S.

ROSCOE. "The Poetic Land." Mr. Roscoe was born in 1823 and died in 1859. Had he lived a few years longer he would almost certainly have ensured for himself an abiding reputation as a master of the sonnet.

CALL. "The Haunted Shore." This impressive, if structurally unsatisfactory sonnet, is from Mr. Call's "Golden Histories." He has written much, but has not succeeded in attracting wide notice.

COLERIDGE. "Phantasmion's Quest of Iarine." This sonnet is from the author's fairy romance, "Phantasmion," published in 1887. It loses much by separation from the context, but not so much as to render its appearance here inappropriate.

JENKYNS. In "Prize Selections," by Charles W. Moulton, Quotation 546 is credited to George Sinley, as occurring in a song entitled, "Though

Lost to Sight," etc. We are willing to concede to Mr. Sinley, who has produced some very beautiful songs, the authorship of the second line in the quotation, “Thou ever wilt remain;" but inasmuch as the other line, "Though lost to sight, to memory dear," was first published nearly two hundred years ago, we must decline to believe that he could have written a line which appeared in print more than a century before Mr. Sinley was born. And, inasmuch as the poem of which the first line in the quotation was originally a part, contains only two stanzas, we give it entire, feeling well assured that its touching beauty and tender pathos will meet the warmest admiration of the readers of THE MAGAZINE OF POETRY. This poem was written by Ruthven Jenkyns, and was first published in England in the Greenwich Magazine for Mariners in the year 1701-one hundred and ninety years ago. G. L. E.

ADAMS. "Nearer My God to Thee." Sarah Flower Adams was the second daughter of Benjamin Flower, editor and proprietor of the Cambridge (England) Intelligencer. She was born February 22, 1805, and died in 1849. "Nearer My God to Thee" founded on Jacob's dream, recorded in Genesis, and in 1841 was contributed to a Unitarian collection of "Hymns and Anthems," edited by William J. Fox. Few hymns have such general approval, yet so severely criticised as the work of a Unitarian. The compilers of the Baptist HymnBook (England), were so ill pleased with the omission of the name of Christ, that they secured the services of Rev. Arthur T. Russell to make, according to their idea, the verses perfect by the addition of the last verse. Others, with the same intent, changed "a cross" to "the cross." It has been adopted by all Christian sects, and translated into various languages. Adapted to the tune of "Bethany," Prof. Hitchcock relates that as he and his traveling companions rounded their way down the foot-hills of Mount Lebanon in 1870, they came upon a group of fifty Syrian students who were singing in Arabic this beautiful hymn to this familiar tune.

THOMPSON. "Music in Camp." John Randolph Thompson was a native of Richmond, Va., having been born there in 1823. He died in 1872. He was educated at the University of Virginia, studied law, and was admitted to the Bar in 1845, but forsook it for the more congenial pursuit of literature. He contributed largely to the Southern Literary Messenger, which he edited from 1847 to 1861. During the Civil War he went to England, where he contributed to Blackwood's Magazine and other

117

periodicals. He was afterward engaged on the editorial staff of the New York Evening Post.

E. S.

FINCH. "The Blue and the Gray." This poem, which appeared originally in the New York Tribune, is founded upon an incident that occurred at Columbus, Miss., on Decoration Day, 1867, when flowers were strewn upon the graves of Confederate and Federal soldiers alike. This poem has often given rise to dispute, it having been frequently confounded with J. H. McNaughton's "The Blue and the Gray." In the spring of 1866 Mr. McNaughton wrote a song which he called "The Blue and the Gray," a title he took pains to have copyrighted. This song was set to music and became popular. In September, 1867, a spirited poem with the same title, "The Blue and the Gray," by Judge Francis M. Finch, was published in The Atlantic. The two poems, with a single title, were frequently confounded, and in self-defense Mr. McNaughton prepared to bring suit against Messrs. Ticknor & Fields for infringement of copyright. In a letter to Mr. McNaughton the publishers of The Atlantic declared the two poems resembled one another only in title and general idea. The outcome of the controversy was friendly; but it should be remembered, in fairness to Mr. McNaughton, that his 'The Blue and the Gray" was printed first.

THE EDITOR'S TABLE.

FOR engravings in this number of THE MAGAZINE OF POETRY, the Publisher wishes to acknowledge the courtesy of Mackenzie Davis & Co., Pittsburgh, Pa.; Jacob Leonard & Son, Albany, N. Y.; Buffalo Electrotype and Engraving Co., Buffalo, N. Y.

FOR Copyright poems and other selections, the Publisher returns thanks to The D. Lothrop Co., Boston, Mass.; Lakeside Press, Chicago, Ill.; G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York; Chatto & Windus, London, England; Roberts Bros., Boston, Mass., Elliot Stock, London, England; John P. Morton & Co., Louisville, Ky.; J. R. Weldin & Co., Pittsburgh, Pa.; J. B. Lippincott Co., Philadelphia, Pa.; Pawson & Brailsford, London, England; John B. Alden, New York; Charles Wells Moulton, Buffalo, N. Y.; D. Appleton & Co., New York.

ENGLISH AND AMERICAN POETS.

BAXLEY, ISAAC R. Songs of the Spirit. Buffalo: Charles Wells Moulton, 1891, c. '90. 24mo, cl., pp. iv and 100, 75c.

INDIVIDUAL AUTHORS.

BELLAMY, ORLANDO R.

Songs by the Wayside.

AILKEN, ISABELLA T. Bohemia, and Other Poems. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Co., 1891. 16m0, gilt top, pp. 160, $1.00.

AKERS, ELIZABETH. The High-Top Sweeting, and Other Poems. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1891. 12mo, cl., pp. vi and 142, $1.25. ALDRICH, THOMAS BAILEY. The Sister's Tragedy, with Other Poems. Lyrical and Dramatic. New York and Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1891. 16m0, pp. vi and 108, $1.25.

ALT, FLORENCE MAY. A Child of Song. Verses. Privately printed. 16m0, white leatherette, pp.

114.

ARNOLD, SIR EDWIN. The Light of the World, or the Great Consummation. San Francisco: S. Carson Co., 1891. 12mo, pap., pp. 287, 5oc. Austin, AlfrED. Savonarola, a Tragedy. New York: Macmillan & Co., 1891. 12mo, cl., pp. ix and 306, $1.75.

Fourth

AUSTIN, ALFRED. The Human Tragedy. edition. New York: Macmillan & Co., 1891. 12mo, cl., pp. 315, $1.75.

AUSTIN, ALFRED. Lyrical Poems. New York: Macmillan & Co., 1891. 12mo, cl., pp. xiii and 242, $1.75.

AUSTIN, ALFRED. Narrative Poems. New York: Macmillan & Co., 1891. 12mo, cl., pp. vii and 187, $1.75.

BAKER, SAMUEL T. Fort Sumter and its Defenders, with Notes. Buffalo: Charles Wells Moulton, 1891. Port., il., cl., pp. 62, $1.

BARBE, WAITMAN. Ashes and Incense: Poems. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Co., 1892, c. '91. 12mo, hf. cl., $1.25.

BARRIE, J. M. Auld Licht Idylls. Fifth edition. New York: Macmillan & Co., 1891. 12mo, cl., pp. 250, $2.

BATES, ARLO. The Poet and His Self. Boston: Roberts Bros., 1891. 16m0, pp. x and 152, $1.50.

Buffalo: Charles Wells Moulton, 1891. c. Cl.,

port., pp. viii and 349, $1.50.

The PerfumeNew York: Saal

BETTS, CRAVEN LANGSTRoth.
Holder: a Persian Love-Poem.
firld & Fitch, 1891. c. 16mo, cl., pp. 49, $1.25.

BLOCK, LOUIS J. Dramatic Sketches and Poems. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Co., 1891. 16m0, gilt top, pp. 220, $1.

BOURDILLON, F. W. Ailes D'Alouette. Boston: Roberts Bros., 1891. c. 12mo, gilt edge, gilt, cl., PP. 74, $1. BRIDGEMAN, MARCUS FAYETTE. Mosses, Under the Pine, Seaweed, Tales at the Manse. A revised collection of the poems of Marcus Fayette Bridgeman. Boston: Fred S. Collins.

BRINE, MRS. MARY D. Thoughts and Fancies: Poems and Pictures of Life and Nature. Illustrated by Allan Barrand, W. H. J. Boot, E. F. Brentnall, and others. New York: Cassell Publishing Co., 1891. 16mo, cl., pp. xl and 80, $1.50. BRISTOL, E. L. MCCOMB. Rainy Days, and Other Poems. New York: M. J. Roth, 1891. c. 16m0, pap., pp. 109, 50C.

BUTLER, WILLIAM ALLEN. Oberammergrau 1890. New York: Harper & Bros., 1891. 4to, gilt top, il., pp. 46, $2.

BUTTERS, MARY E. Harp of Hesper, and Other Poems. Author's edition. Buffalo: Charles Wells Moulton, 1891. c. 12mo, cl., port., pp. viii and 161, $1.25.

BYERS, S. H. M. The Happy Isles, and Other Poems. New York: Charles L. Webster & Co., 1891. 16m0, pp. 162, $1.

BYRON, LORD. Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. New American edition. Chicago: A. C. McClurg & Co., $1.

CAMPBELL, JOHN PRESTON. Republica: a National Poem. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Co., 1891. CARR, MRS. LAURA GARLAND. Memories and Fancies. Boston: The Writer Publishing Co., 1891. c. 12mo, cl., pp. 144, $1.25.