224 MONTHLY REVIEW OF LITERATURE AND ART. 



which we hesitate not in pronouncing as poetry that would not dis- 

 credit " The Lady of the Lake :" 



" How sadly alter'd, now, the times, 

 Fallen upon Old England's climes ! 

 Her monarch- forests past away, 

 Her castles crumbled to decay ; 

 The desecrated abbey pile 

 Roofless along- its fretted aisle ; 

 The may-pole on the village-green 

 A curious relic seen. 



" Oh ! past away the pleasant grove, 

 Where Una with her lamb would rove ! 

 And gone the days of sweet romance, 

 The errant-knight, the shield, the lance, 

 The faded ensign's ragged gloom, 

 Rotting above some warrior's tomf), 

 The tattered banner, in the gleam 

 Of old Westminster's sculptur'd dream, 

 The oak, that in the roofless halls, 

 Waves o'er the tottering ivied walls, 

 Memorials of a fallen age. 



" Monarch-forests, crumbling castles, roofless abbies, fretted 

 aisles, and the ragged gloom of faded ensigns," are all in keeping with 

 the melancholy retrospect our author takes of by-gone days. Sin- 

 cerely do we recommend this poem to the lovers of true poetry. 



The next is " Trifles in Verse,"* a pretty little unassuming volume, 

 which may be carried about with ease in the same compass as a snuff- 

 box. No one can peruse this little work without entertaining a high 

 opinion of the author. It is full of sensibility, love, and piety ; the 

 real overflowings of a pure mind inspired by the hallowing muse of 

 religion. 



We would have our readers glance at the following stanzas then 

 form their own opinions of the author's talents. The last stanza will 

 bear reading more than once : 



ON THE LATE MRS. HOWARD. 



(t Sleep, lovely consort, sleep ! Death watch'd the hour 



When thy young form its richest bloom displayed, 

 And set his seal upon the blushing flower, 

 That mortal eye might never see it fade. 



" Sleep, happy matron, sleep ! 'tis said the blest 



On angel's bosoms are conveyed above ; 

 Thy babe upon an angel-mother's breast 

 Attained at once a heaven of bliss and love. 



Here we have a poemt where the darker passions are pourtrayed. 

 We cannot say that we are over partial to these Lara-like-looking 



* " Trifles in Verse." By the Rev. W. Routledge, M. A. Orr and Smith, 

 Paternoster Row. 

 f " The Rival Sisters, and other Poems." Smith, Elder, and Co., Cornhill. 



