The Portland daily press., 1883-05-12
Recent Publications.

Living English Poets. Boston: Roberts
Brothers; London: Kegan Paul, Trench &
Co.; Portland: Loring, Short & Harmon. A
volume of poems given in chronological or
der from Sir Henry Taylor born 1900 and
John Henry Newman 1901 to writers Of 1850
and 1856. The editors sketch their method
OF selection in an interesting preface sthe
mere string," they say, (which has served
TO tie up our sweet posy." The reader will
at once be struck with the good taste shown
in the culling of these blossoms and in their
arrangement. A good deal of space is given
to Swinburne, Morris and Browning as well
as to Tennyson and Jean Ingelow. We can
not resist quoting in full one poem from
Browning
HOME THOUGHTS, FROM ABROAD.
Robert Browning, Born 1912.
Oh, to be in England
Now that April's there
And whoever wakes in England
Sees. some morning, unaware.
That the lowest boughs and the brushwood sheaf
Mound the elm tree bole are in tiny leaf,
Mhie the ehaffnch sings ON the orchard bough,
In England-nowi
And after April, when May follows
And the whitethroat builds aud all the swallowsi
Harkl whore my blossomed pear-tree in the hedge
Leans TO the field aud seatters on the clover
blossoms and dew-drops-at the bent sprays edge
THAT'S the wise thrush; no sings each song twice
Lest you should think he neyer,could recspture
The first fine careless rapturel
And though the fields look rough with hoary dew,
They will be gay when noentide wakes anew
The buttercups, the little children's dover
Far brighter than this gaudy melon-hower!
From Ponkapog to Pesth, BY Thomas
Bailey Aldrich Boston: Houghton, Mitliin
d Co.; Portland: Loring, Short q Harmon. J
Mr.. Aldrieh tells US that the little New Eng
land village of Ponkapog does not merit
description--his starting point for journey
and that Pesth, his final destination, has
been too often described, and in this inge-
NOUS manner he disposes of the title of his
last book. But ssbetwixt and between he
jots down for us notes written with the
piquancy and delightful sense of humor of
which he knows so we'll the secret, and full
of delieacy and poetic feeling. All through
these sketches he appears to carefully avoid
tecanicalities or statistics, and so leads his
reader ION withlleisurely dilettanteism over
ground just as solid as though it had worn
no such disguise.
Retrospect of Long Life: From 1915 to
1888. BY S. c. Hall. New York: d. Ap-
pleton q Co.; Portland: Loring, Short &
Harmony The writer of this book is an
Englishman, and describes himself as "a
man of letters by profession" He has been
a parliamentary reporter, an editor and au-
thor-employments that have brought to his
acquaintance many people of eminent talent
and distinguished position, so that he speaks
whereof he knows.
It would be difficult to find more enter
tanning book. 1t is full of incident and
anecdote as to celebrated persons in the va
rious callings and professions, and the inter-
est of the reader is kept up to the end of the
book by the constantly changing scenes and
events and personages.
The days of the finder box, of oil lamps,
of mail-coaches, of turnpikes, of the pillion.
of the pillory, scolds' bride and the duckinc
stool are within his memory AMI are brought
out in contrast with the $50 called) modern
improvements. Besides the recollections of q
great variety of Thugs that have been, there
are recollections of the newspaper press and
early editing-of the Houses of the Lords
and Commons and other great men-of art
manufacture-of the origin of public chart
ties-of authors-of artists-of actors-of
great lawyers and statesmen-extending
over period Of nearly seventy years. Only
short space is given to any person or event.
The book is like kaleidoscope, presenting
a new arrangement of forms at every turn Of
the instrument
We commend it to everybody as easy, in
structiye and agreeable reading.
Among other matters of interest in the
book is sketch of the character CT Father
Matthew and an account Of his triumphant
successes in the Temperance reformation,
strikingly illustrating the power of ssmoral
suasion'' as compared with illegal suasion. 2