Me in far lands did Justice call, cold queen Among the dead, who, after heat and haste At length have leisure for her steadfast voice, That gathers peace from the great deeps of h.e.l.l.
She call"d me, saying: I heard a cry by night!
Go thou, and question not; within thy halls My will awaits fulfilment.
And she lies there, My mother! ay, my mother now; O hair That once I play"d with in these halls! O eyes That for a moment knew me as I came, And lighten"d up, and trembled into love; The next were darkened by my hand! Ah me!
Ye will not look upon me in that world.
Yet thou, perchance, art happier, if thou go"st Into some land of wind and drifting leaves, To sleep without a star; but as for me, h.e.l.l hungers, and the restless Furies wait.
Milton, and the method of Greek tragedy are Mr. Phillips"s influences, and again we may say, what better influences could a young singer have?
His verse is dignified, and has distinction.
Mr. Cripps is melodious at times, and Mr. Binyon, Oxford"s latest Laureate, shows us in his lyrical ode on Youth that he can handle a difficult metre dexterously, and in this sonnet that he can catch the sweet echoes that sleep in the sonnets of Shakespeare:
I cannot raise my eyelids up from sleep, But I am visited with thoughts of you; Slumber has no refreshment half so deep As the sweet morn, that wakes my heart anew.
I cannot put away life"s trivial care, But you straightway steal on me with delight: My purest moments are your mirror fair; My deepest thought finds you the truth most bright
You are the lovely regent of my mind, The constant sky to the unresting sea; Yet, since "tis you that rule me, I but find A finer freedom in such tyranny.
Were the world"s anxious kingdoms govern"d so, Lost were their wrongs, and vanish"d half their woe!
On the whole Primavera is a pleasant little book, and we are glad to welcome it. It is charmingly "got up," and undergraduates might read it with advantage during lecture hours.
Primavera: Poems. By Four Authors. (Oxford: B. H. Blackwell.)
INDEX OF AUTHORS AND BOOKS REVIEWED
AITCHISON, JAMES: The Chronicle of Mites
ANONYMOUS: An Author"s Love Annals of the Life of Shakespeare Miss Bayle"s Romance Rachel Sturm und Drang The Cross and the Grail The Judgment of the City Warring Angels
ARMSTRONG, GEORGE FRANCIS: Stories of Wicklow
ARNOLD, SIR EDWIN: With Sa"di in the Garden
ASHBY-STERRY, J.: The Lazy Minstrel
AUSTIN, ALFRED: Days of the Year Love"s Widowhood
Author of Flitters, Tatters, and the Counsellor: Ismay"s Children
Author of Lucy: Tiff
Author of Mademoiselle Mori: A Child of the Revolution Under a Cloud
Author of The White Africans: AEonial
BALZAC, HONORE DE: Cesar Birotteau The d.u.c.h.ess of Langeais and Other Stories
BARKER, JOHN THOMAS: The Pilgrimage of Memory
BARR, AMELIA: A Daughter of Fife
BARRETT, FRANK: The Great Hesper
BAUCHE, EMILE: A Statesman"s Love
BAYLISS, WYKE: The Enchanted Island
BEAUFORT, RAPHAEL LEDOS DE: Letters of George Sand
BELLAIRS, LADY: Gossips with Girls and Maidens
BLUNT, WILFRID SCAWEN: In Vinculis
BOISSIER, GASTON: Nouvelles Promenades Archeologiques
BOWEN, SIR CHARLES: Virgil in English Verse. Eclogues and AEneid I.-VI.
BOWLING, E. W.: Sagittulae
BRODIE, E. H.: Lyrics of the Sea
BROUGHTON, RHODA: Betty"s Visions
BROWNE, PHYLLIS: Mrs. Somerville and Mary Carpenter
BUCHAN, ALEXANDER: Joseph and His Brethren
BUCHANAN, ROBERT: That Winter Night
BURNS, DAWSON: Oliver Cromwell
CAINE, HALL: Life of Samuel Taylor Coleridge
CAIRNS, WILLIAM: A Day after the Pair
CALDECOTT, RANDOLPH: Gleanings from the Graphic
CAMERON, MRS. HENRY LOVETT: A Life"s Mistake
CARNARVON, EARL OF: The Odyssey of Homer. Books I.-XII.