534 
*Tis soft—the low note speaks of love. 
Lo! the blue lake ; the birchen grove 
Almost from view conceals 
A maiden and a youth, for whom 
Elysium, in its pictured womb, 
Futurity reveals. 
*Tis wild—hark! how the storms rejoice 
Among the rocks; the cataract’s voice 
So mighty ; and the breeze 
Sweeps like a hurricane along, 
Singing its fierce demoniac song 
Amid the wondering trees. 
’Tis harsh—the battle-onset’s come ; 
With bray of trump and beat of drum. 
In deadly combat meet 
The soldier and his foe—the ery 
Of onward—on to viectory— 
Of quarter—and retreat. 
And now the wild and wailing tones 
Seem sighs, and shrieks, and direful groans ; 
And now their hurrying force 
Re-echoes like the tramp and tread 
Athwart the dying and the dead, 
Of horsemen and of horse.—&c, 
The best engravings are,—The Blind Piper 
—The Cottage Kitchen—Ellen Strathallan 
(by the way, Mrs. Pickersgill’s tale is per- 
haps the most melliffuous piece of versifica- 
tion in the volume)—and The Idle School- 
Boy ;—but all are good. 
The Gem; 1829.—This is a new start, un- 
der the sovereignty of Mr. Thomas Hood, of 
Whim and Oddity notoriety. The getting 
up of this very beautiful volume must, we 
think, be allowed to be superior to the rest. 
The subjects of the engravings have been 
selected by Cooper, R.A.; and the engray- 
ings themselves are most of them of unri- 
valled excellence. Hero and Leander— 
The Painter’s Study—Harry and his Dog, 
except that Harry’s sister’s hand is nothing 
but a paw—Nina—May Talbot—May 
Queen, a very sweet face, but the picture 
does not in the least accord with the story 
it is:intended to illustrate. The literary 
part of the book—not at all meaning to de- 
preciate this in particular—is, after all, in 
these annuals, of the least importance. Al- 
most any thing not muck below mediocrity 
goes off very well, when the typography and 
the accompaniments are so beautiful: sus- 
picion is lulled—it is a sop to Cerberus— 
the judgment is beguiled, and integrity 
duped. But Mr. Hood musters with great 
strength—he has Sir W. Scott, Charles 
Lamb, Montgomery, and Gleig; and among 
the ladies, Miss Mitford (Harry and _his 
Dog should have been turned over to the 
Juvenile Souvenir) is at the head: but we 
do not see Mrs. Hemans, and what can 
have become of L.E.L.? The pieces do 
not exceed fifty, and we like the book the 
better for its moderation ; the page is well 
set, andreads agreeably—some of the others 
have their page too much crowded. Mr. 
Hood has put his own mark upon it— 
Monthly Review of Literature, 
Nov. 
ON A PICTURE OF HERO AND 
LEANDER. 
Why, Lover, why 
Such a water-rover? 
Would she love thee more 
For coming half-seas over ? 
Why, Lady, why 
So in love with dipping? 
Must a lad of Greece 
Come all over dripping ? 
Why, Cupid, why 
Make the passage brighter ? 
Were not any boat 
Better than a lighter ? 
Why, Maiden, why 
So intrusive standing? 
Must thou be on the stair, 
When he’s on the /anding ? 
Here is a bit of exquisite twaddling ; but it 
is only fair to add, plenty of the same qua- 
lity is to be found in all of them:— 
Oh! were I spiritual as the wafting wind, 
Which breathes its sighing music through the 
wood, 
Sports with the dancing leaves, and crisps the 
flood, 
Then would I glide away from cares which bind 
Down into haunts that taint the healthful mind ; 
And I would sport with many a bloom and 
bud, 
Happiest the farthest from the neighbourhood, 
And from the crimes and miseries of mankind ; 
Then would I waft me to the cowslip’s bell ; 
And to the wild-rose should my yoyage be ; 
Unto the lily, vestal of the dell, 
Or Daisy, the pet-child of poésy ; 
Or be, beside some mossy forest-well, 
Companion to the wood anemone. 
Friendship’s Offering ; 1829.—This is 
one of the elder annuals, and maintains its 
position with undiminished respectability. 
The Scotch predominate very decidedly— 
Hogg, Pringle, Mackenzie, Moir (4), Cun- 
ningham, Malcolm, &c. among the poets ; 
Gleig, Gillies, Fraser, Modern Pythago- 
rean, &c. among the prose writers. Among 
the English, Miss Mitford figures still, and 
particularly in the “Election,”’ one of her 
best—Mrs. Bowdich’s “ Going to Sea, and 
Ship’s Crew,” shews a good deal of Miss 
Mitford’s graphic power; and generally, 
we incline to say, the literature takes 
a somewhat higher tone. The Editor 
claims the merit of “ purer morality, and 
more generous and manly sentiment ;’’ but 
this, as a fact, is not, to us at least, pre- 
eminently conspicuous; and still, as we 
said, the execution on the whole—if one 
can correctly speak of these things generally, 
and it is impossible to speak of them singly 
—is a shade or two above any we have 
hitherto glanced at. Of the ormamental 
part, Martin’s .Glen-Lynden, is quite in 
his style—rocky, gloomy, massive—with the 
distance beautifully undefined ; the engray- 
