The Sun.
London, England, 1837-10-21 00:00:00

..._. _ . .
CHRISTMAS LIBRARY—VoI. 1.

Darton and Clark, London, 1838.
Ti'lS elegant little volume, which we take for granted
II be continued from year to year, is under the su-
erintendance of Mary Howitt, which is a sufficient
guara- •
otee for its being carefully and cleverly executed.
;i? entitled " Birds and Flowers, and other Country
in "Ig8," and furnishes us with delightful illustrations,
prose and verse, of rural life, in its most engaging
Pect• The wood-cuts which accompany each poem
We
sketch, are many of them very beautiful.
c subjoin the opening stanzas on the "Carrion-
r°w," which, we think, will interest our young
readers
" On a splintered bough sits the carrion crow,
And first he croaks loud, and then he croaks low ;
Twenties of years ago, that bough
Was leafless and harkless as it is now.
" It is on the top of an ancient oak
That the carrion-crow haS perched to croak ;
In the gloom of a forest the old oak groTc s— •
When it was young there's nobody knows.
'Tis but half alive, and up in the air
You may sea its branches splintered and bare ;
You may see them pain in t cloudy night,
They are so skeleton-1 like and white.
"The old oak trunk is gnarled and grey,
But the wood has rotted all away,
Nothing remains but a cave-like shell
Where bats and spiders and millepedes dwell."

FORGET-ME-NOT.
Ackerman, _London, 1838.
ajllere are many clever prose tales in this volume,
(")111e good poetry, to which, however, we are in-
'uted, it seems, not to English, but to American
Ens• Mrs. Sigourney and Miss Gould who, as' the
ditor assures us, " bold a distinguished rank in
the literature of the United States," contribute verses.
that any English poet of the day might be proud to
o /Pl'. A " Dream of Music," in particular, by Miss
ti euld, is a very choice sample of melodious versifica-
:4, with, this one defect—namely, that it is too
oneentli,ffy
giggested by, and too closely modelled upon,
afte,. f
`L.l"ore's sweetest poems, written immediately
"la return from America, and suggested by the
conteni,i
bat k 440 n of a serene summer evening on the
te,l Bof the Schuykill. The Engravings are neither
wter nor
worse than those with which the Forget-me-
tero t has been usually embellished. Perhaps the best,
terstainly the most si;irited, is the sketch of the Clois-
of Santo Paolo at Rome, which is engraved by
after, from one of Prout's most animated designs.

FINE ARTS.

FLOWERS OF-LOVELINESS.

Ackerman, London, 1837.
Ile idea of this splendid work is a truly happy
sari
It
Is, to represent various flowers by figures of
bl 'ma lovelywomen,—for instance, the simple "Heath
thiso by a pretty young peasant girl, art,less and
tib.P„"..isticated in her nature ;.the delicate Water-
th. ..by the figures of two maidens, who are bathing
tile clear stream of a fountain that runs sparkling
Oath a grotto; and the Poppy" by a young
(1!lis girl, who has fallen fast asleep in the armsh
kelt sister who is watching over her slumbers. T
is
we repeat, is a .Taceful one, and the execution
It
I:wise inferior. The engraving entitled " Canter-
rY nell," is in Robinson's most careful manner.
cottepresents a country lass, who is seated outside a
Aliage door, absorbed in thoughts of an absent lover.
for parently she has had some little dispute with him,
doilbiThaid-servant having just tendered her a letter,
tint tuerss
-4 °lle of reconciliation, she will not accept it,
Ifi away her head, though rather in sorrow than
ti.trarnger. Her countenance is in the true style of
kr. 1,311 Peasant beauty—a style of which the late
wirer,
iszlitt used to profess himself the ardent ad-
No._ especially when it was set off by the graces of,
it :erant red arms and hard hands. The " Laurel,
%ure another skilful engraving. A tall, stately female
litt,; is holding a branch of it in one hand, and a
of t'ikin the other. The countenance of this votaress
she
oPr°,ll° might be mistaken for that of a Sappho in
iket,l3 her more subdued and thoughtful moods. The
tilt in illustration of these engravings are all from
aeePen of 'Miss Landon. They are written with
ttraehe" thanti feeling, and with more vigour, simplicity, and
ean this accomplished poetess is usually in
habit
d of tnanifestinff. Her introductory lines, de-
eate
trikeef ~t° Our young :Qoeen Victoria, convey manyo
t11%.9'1Y turned compliments. But our favourite
Iit1„.18 the one illustrative of the " Clematis,"—the
toeeiOpg stanza of which is eminently felicitous in ex-
id reminds us of one of the poetic mottoes
a chaPter in Scott's Abbot.
Bt.,Mary's shrine is flaw laid lowly,
Sale ntivietr.sedh:Ttrosiwi :n that pale flower solely,
1s .
Of all 't f
, ormer pride remains;;
Hushedis the ancient anthem, keeping
o_The vigil of the silent night ;
'June is thAud e censer's silver sweeping,
dim the sacred taper's light."