1827.] The Pocket Books. 589 



of them considerable merit. The binding of this work too like that of the 

 "Amulet," is rich and well devised: the embossed and gilded cover has the 

 advantage of being durable as well as handsome. We must find room for one 

 specimen; some pleasing verses of Mr. Hervey's: 



STANZAS. 



SLUMBER lie soft on thy beautiful eye ! 



Spirits, whose smiles are like thine of the sky, 



Hay thee to sleep, with their visionless strings, 



Brighter then thou but because they have wings ! 



Fair as a being of heavenly birth, 



But loving and loved as a child of the earth ! 



Why is that tear ? Art thou gone, in thy dream, 



To the valley far off, and the moon-lighted stream, 



Whore the sighing of flowers, and the nightingale's song, 



Fling sweets on the wave, as it wanders along ? 



Blest be the dream, that restores them to thee, 



But thou art the bird and the roses to me ! 



And now, as I watch o'er thy slumbers alone, 



And hear thy low breathings, aud know thee mine own, 



And muse on the wishes that grew in that vale, 



And the fancies we shaped from the river's low tale, 



I blame not the fate that has taken the rest, 



While it left to my bosom its dearest and best. 



Slumber lie soft on thy beautiful eye ! 



Love be a rainbow, to brighten thy sky ! 



Oh ! not for sunshine and hope, would I part 



With the shade time has flung over all but thy heart ! 



Still art thou ah" which thou wert when a child, 



Only more holy and only less wild ! 



The " Winter's Wreath" (at last we are through our list) is a volume got up at 

 Liverpool, and devoted to a charitable purpose. It is a neat book, and contains 

 some ingenious papers ; but has not the advantage, in general, of well-known 

 names in its list of contributors. The engravings are all well executed, and by 

 London artists. 



Upon the whole, we may fairly congratulate the Annuals upon having gained 

 ground, rather than lost any, in the present year. The books ought to be good 

 indeed, if we might augur from the aggregate amount of contributors : Sir Wal- 

 ter Scott, Mr. Lockhart, the Ettrick Shepherd, Miss Landon, Mrs. Remans, and 

 Miss Mitford ; Mr. Southey, Mr. Coleridge, Barry Cornwall, Mr. Horace Smith, 

 Mr. Thomas Moore, Mr. Thomas Campbell, Delta and Titus of Blackwood's Ma- 

 gazine, Mr. Thomas Hood, Mr.Crofton Croker, Miss Roberts, Mr.Neele, the edi- 

 tors, personally, of four of the volumes, &c. &c. Some names might no doubt 

 be added, which are not so well known to the public; and some which are not very 

 likely to become so : but the array of talent, taken altogether, is a very splendid 

 one. 



