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    produced amon « - the genii of the Leeds manufacturing . "furnaces by the Smoke Prevention Act . This is thle poem which the age is to welcome " as a rocky and fantastic bluff . " A few good lines in Mr . Combe ' s volume show that better things might , perhaps , be achieved b y him ; but the time has not yet come—if it ever -will come—for ranking him among the poets of the Mr . Combe , it has been seen , speaks of " the extreme abundance of verses" now put forth . In the preface to the volume we next take up—The Banks of the Wye , and Other Poems ( London : Moore)—we are told that there isa *' paucity of poetical writers , " and that the issue of their productions is a " rare occurrence . " It were to be wished that this latter gentleman could change places with us : he would then find out bis mistake , and would in

    future forbear from increasing the stock by such foolishness as he has here collected into a . hundred heavy pages . His volu . me # ; is worth running through , however , as a curious exemplification of the depths of imbecility to which a human soul can descend . One half of the book consists of some poems written in accordance with the worst development of the ' heart and impart' personification style which prevailed during the last century , and which , we could scarcely have conceived it possible ; any man now-a-days would desire to revive ; the other lialf is made up of inanities on subjects of the moment , in which a desperate struggle to be witty and humorous is hopelessly maintained , chiefly by means of slang . In a poem called " Hold Your Peace "—an adjuration -which we feel strongly moved to make to the writer himself— --weread : — ¦' . ' ¦ ¦¦;¦ ' ' .-¦ " ' ' . ' ¦"¦'¦ ' ¦ ' .-. . ¦'¦¦' . ' . - ¦ .:. ¦ . ' : . ¦' ;• . -,.:. \ / , ''¦ ¦ : "¦; . ¦¦'¦ . . ;¦ . Ye saucy Rooks that ever cavr , And drown the " gardens" with your jaw ' , •" Obey your brother black-coats'Law , — . ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ . - . ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦¦ ¦•;¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ' ¦ '¦ ' ¦;¦ . . -.- . ¦'¦ ' ' ¦ ¦ ¦ . ¦ . ¦ ' " ¦ - . ¦ ¦' ¦ . . ' .. ' ; ...- ¦ ¦ ' Hold your . peace . ! ¦ •¦ ¦ - . , ' - . ¦ ¦ ¦ ' - '¦ .: ' ¦ ' ' *'¦ ¦ ¦ But perhaps the deepest deep of fatuity is reached in : " : ; ¦ ¦ -THANKS FOB A . DINNEK OF SALMON . ¦ : . ; : -V \ " . \ \ How shall I thank , you for tbe fish , ; With wMch you heaped : my dinner dish ? V : ' .. .. ' ¦ ' : ¦ ¦ . " ; "¦ ¦ . - . ; It is not inmy power to do "¦ ' /'¦ , ' - } .: ' -:..:- " - ¦'¦' .. ' .. ' ¦ ' ..: ; .. ¦ ¦ . ' ¦ . '¦ ¦ . The like kind office now for you , —¦ V ¦ But hope with interest to repay \ > Your kindness at some future day . ! It was , without a word of gammon , ' : : A most delicious slice of salmon ; ' More on this themeI'd gladly write , '; :. ' If I could make my Muse indite , — .-. ' ¦ ¦¦' ¦ -.. '¦' - ¦" .-. ' She's In her sulks , and won ' t proceed ,- ^—^ So let the wil l excuse the deed ! . ^ We are really too indolent , or we might indulge in , a parody oh the foregoing , with the title— - " Thanks for a Very Foolish Book "—and with these two lines : — ¦ : ¦"¦ . ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦'" * ¦ ¦ . ¦ ¦ ¦"¦ ' ¦¦ -. ' ¦ ¦ ¦¦¦ ¦ : ' ¦' : ¦ ' = '¦¦ ' ¦' ¦ ' . - "¦; . ¦ ¦ . ¦ : ¦ ¦ ' ¦ ¦ .- '

    It is , -without a word pf chaffing , : A book , for most excessive laughing . : IThemost original thing in the volume is the author ' s accentuation of the word robust , which he turns into r-obSst- — As the staunch Oak its robust limbs out-throws . Gonzaga di Capponi' : a JJramatic Romance . By Henry Solly . ( Longmans . ) We have read the first act of this play , and no ¦ more , except in desultory snatches , finding it utterly impossible to struggle through the whole . For here are six acts and 330 pages of painfully dull blank verse , written with a moral purpose—the said purpose being to show that the greatest geniuses , though possessing the highest patriotism and the purest benevolence at the commencement , are apt in the end to become villains of the deepest * dye unless their ambition be chastened by religious feeling . This is shadowed forth in the career of a Florentine democrat , Gonzaga di Capponi , who begins by being the servant , of Iris , fellow , plebeians , and ends by becoming

    At length one evening ,-when the autumn mist ... Made phantoms of the mountains , &c . Arden ; a Poem . By John Croker Barrow . ( Sa , unde * s and Otley \—This has been written under a singular delusion ; The author has imbued himself in Tennyson ' s Maud , but has forgotten that such a poem was ever published and has accordingly reproduced it—with variations . The story is told in detached lyrics , of divers measures ; the hero is his own narrator ; and he is a cynic who falls in love , or a lover who becomes a cynic . His father ' s castle is ; .-: : ; • ¦ . . , . ' . ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ . ¦ . ¦• •; ¦ ¦/¦ ¦ . ; - ¦ ¦/ : . . - ¦¦ . ; ' - - - , . ¦ . ¦ ¦ s Built on the beach that maddens the surge , Mocking the notes of its solemn dirge . We think we have read in the Laureate ' s last poem—Now to the scream of a madden'd beach dragged down : by the wave . There is a wood , behind the father's mansion , as in Mated . Of the clergyman's daughter , Dora , we are told that her face was : i Cold , and calm , and clear ; that her eyes were" pale , cold eyes , ; " that she was an " icicle beauty- " and that she had . .-.- .. . "¦ ' . ; : ¦ ' •¦' ¦; . , : ' ' - . ;; .. /¦ : "¦ . . ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ' - ' [ ¦/';/ , .. ¦ ¦¦ ¦ . .-.. , . . - . ...-. ; — -r— purity shadow'd and frozen upon her . Perhaps tne reader may recollect that Maud ' s face was a "passionless , pale cold face , " a ¦? ' cold and clear-cut face , " ' Faultily faultless , icily regiilar , splendidly null . There is a heath ; also , at the back of the hero ' s residence—a spot like tie little hollow in Maud , where the suicide -was committed , and where the u blood-red heath" and " the red-ribbed ledges" of the rock seem to "be always blabbing of violent death . So in Arden . The heath is Just such a spot to smother •; ¦ ' Stains on the purple night-sliade died From the crimson life of another- ^ - In the lean dry moss of its hollows to hide > . . The blood of a murdered , brotljer . . ^ ¦ :: '¦ ¦'¦' ' Once , in the hero ' s boyhood , a ebrpse was found there , and at night " a skeleton grpan palsied the terrified iiiiv" When the dead body in Maud is brought lionie , the . boy hears : * ; The shrill-edged shriek of a motlier divide the shuddering night . Maud is encountered by her lover riding on horseback ; sb Dora must be met similarly mounted : — - ; ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦

    . - .- one rode by the sycamore planting there , ¦ : ; ¦ . . ; ¦ . . ;• ¦ . ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦¦;¦ . ¦ . /¦•¦ On her Arab steed . ' . '¦ ' ¦ ¦ : .. " •;¦ ¦ ¦ '" :. •; ¦ ¦ '" - ' . ' ;¦ : ¦; : . . . ' : ) ' ¦ : : ' - ' . ' -: ¦ - ' . ; i ' :-. ' ¦ > . After a while , the hero goes mad , for reasons not clearly indicated ; but he recovers ( as in 2 J / & ^)*/ on hearing ; of the war with Russia :- — I think I must have been mad ! ( ; But I soon got better again ; , I And though my spirit was sad , :. ;¦ ¦ ' ¦ : '" . ' ' ; .. " -. .. ' , .. . " . V- ¦' . I was free frompain ; : ' - ¦ ¦ ' . " . : ¦' . ¦ - . And so at the chance of a Aval I was glad , For I thought of all I should gain—; Arid I went to tlie East , with the heart I had , ¦ / To seek for death on the plain . Maud is " not seventeen : " Dora , therefore , shall be sixteen . Maud is " the moon-faced darling of all : " Dora also is " moon-faced . " A . kiss which thehero just fails in obtainingreminds him of ¦¦ th is :- — Wien a child puts out his mouth ready loop'd , - , . ; For the grape he is destin'd to iniss . ; .. •'¦¦¦ . ¦ And that reminds us of tins : ¦— / Maud with her sweet purse-mo-uth when my father dangled the grapes . Maud ' s lover thinks that , Howe ' er we may brave it out , we men are a little breed . Dora s lover is similarly impressed : —^ We are pitiful creatures all , And wo grovel about in the dust ; And each one looks at his neighbour ' s ivall With a feeling of half-distrust . He objects also to " the ' bondage of yold-. " Then there is a ball , as in Maud s and ultimately the lady- —or some lady , for there isa great confusion of ladies—consents to the banns being put up : — She is going to be my bride ! To be the life of my life ! She is going to be my bride ! She is going to be my wife ! However , an awful catastrophe ensues , on the eve of the wedding-day , and she isn't his wife . And there it ends . To re-write another man ' s book requires , no doubt , great courage and a noble audacity ; but it can hardly be called an exercise of original genius .

    their bloodthirsty tyrant . Mr . Solly , like some of the other poets to whose performances we are now introducing the reader , writes a preface wherein he kindly recommends you to " consult" Napier ' s History of Florence ^ as well as Machiavelli and Sismondi , wliose works are " easily accessible "—as if it kad never occurred to any one to . * ¦ ' consult" these authors before . The preface concludes with the following rhapsody , which , though meant to be pious , is to our minds rather profane : —•¦' With these explanatory remarks , the author sends his work into the world to play such part as may be according to the will of Him , who in His providence guides a sparrow ' s flight , and who by His children ' s wisdom and folly , by their failures as by their success , is silently and steadily working out His grand designs for universal and eternal good . , Prefaces to poems , in fact , arc apt to be very presumptuous and conceited . Here , in a littio volume , called Pebbles from Parnassus ( Layer ) , are sonie introductory confidences , by winch the reader is apprized that the accompanying verses are printed more because of " the writer ' s power easily so to produce them , " than because of " any intrinsic value of their own . " We do not know why the public is to be bored with crude poems merely because the writer can easily produce them : however , tliis particular author is not without a hope that bis verses may appeal , faintly to the reader ' s heart , " and leayo an echo there when the pago is closed ; " in which case , hia " aspiraxations will have been amply fulfilled . " A somewhat sickly and sentimental - character pervades these poems ; but there are some pretty passages here and there—as , for instance , these lines forming part of a sonnet descriptive of early morning : — Oh Heaven ! how sweet the breeze , how cool and still Is all ! Earth , air , and water , seem to rest Under aome magic , and the distant hill Looks like th' en chanter in green mantle drcst . "Whilst the long aisles of odorous chosnut trees , Through which the sun hia earliest ambor showers , Seem , « s they stand unshaken by the breeze , Huga candelabra lighted with palo flowers , An though o ' ernlght eome giants' festival Had bwsn played out , and those the rolics all . And this is really striking and fine :

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    980 T HE I / E ADEia , [ No . 342 , Saturday ,

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    The first of the cheap concerts at St . George ' s Hall , Liveipool , took place lust Saturday evening , and was highly euccessiul , nearly every one of tlio songs being encored by the democratic musie-lovcre . The Mayor and several members of the municipal council were present , and remained to the end . The scale of admission is the same as that at the London Mondny Evening Concerts—viz-i 3 d ., Gd ., and is .

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    THE FOUNTAINS AT THE CRYSTAL PALACE . The day on which the last grand fountain demonstration took place at the Crystal Palace having been tmpropitious , there will be another—and , we are told , positively tlie last—watery festival this day . The spectacle is one of surpassing beauty ; and wo cannot , therefore , avoid hoping that the clouds may clear off for an hour or so , nnd add the golden spkndoure of sunlight to the vapoury silver of the jets and aqueous columns . A suggestion was made by a correspondent of one of our daily contemporaries , that tho day should for the nonce be in ado n shilling day ; but this has not been acceded to . The aristocratical half-crown shuts out the humble John Smiths nnd Thomas Joneses . This is to be regretted ; for tho greatest glory of " the Palace " is that it claims to bo the Palace of the Democracy .

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 11, 1856, page 980, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2162/page/20/