478 



LITERATURE, AMERICAN, IN 1888. 



" Emperor "William I." Translations from the 

 " Great French Writers Series " include " George 

 Sand," by E. Caro ; "Madame de Sevigne," 

 by Gaston Boissier ; " Montesquieu/' by Al- 

 bert Sorel ; " Turgot," by Leon Say; and 

 kl Victor Cousin," by Jules Simon. 



Poetry. A resume of the poetry of 1888 is 

 somewhat discouraging. Neither " Heartsease 

 and Rue," a collection of poems by James 

 Russell Lowell, nor " Before the Curfew," 

 by Oliver Wendell Holmes, nor " November 

 Boughs," by Walt Whitman, offers much that 

 is new or particularly striking; while the sad- 

 ness aroused by the significant titles of the 

 two last-named volumes of aged authors finds 

 little alleviation. There seem to be no younger 

 ones aspiring to the foremost rank of poets, to 

 whom crudity might be forgiven in considera- 

 tion of genius, and the poverty of effort is but 

 too obvious. Miss Amelie Rives, it is true, 

 astonished the literary world with "Herod 

 and Mariamne, a Tragedy," which called forth 

 much comment and criticism not altogether 

 favorable. The translation of the "Kalevala," 

 the epic poem of Finland, by J. Martin Craw- 

 ford, deserves high commendation, and is, 

 moreover, the first full rendering into English 

 that the poem has received. Another transla- 

 tion of special interest is that of the Norwe- 

 gian dramatic trilogy, "Sigurd Slembe," by 

 Bjornstjerne Bjornson, made by William Mor- 

 ton Payne. J. Leslie Garner rendered " The 

 Strophes of Omar Khayyam," from the Per- 

 sian ; and F. H. Hedge and Mrs. A. L. Wister 

 published a collection of "Metrical Translations 

 and Poems," from the German. G. E. Vin- 

 cent's " Eight Songs from Horace " is a hand- 

 some attempt at reproduction of the poet in 

 the style of his day. 



To return to American poetry, we have 

 "Forest Echoes," by G. E. Cole; and "The 

 Witch in the Glass," which Mrs. Piatt has 

 added to her former volumes of tender verse. 

 " Changing Moods in Verse and Rhyme " is by 

 W. Hunter Birckhead, and " Along the Shore " 

 is Rose Hawthorne Lathrop's. A collection of 

 the " Poems of Frank Forrester " (Henry W. 

 Herbert), a novelist and writer of sporting 

 sketches thirty years ago, was made for the 

 first time and handsomely illustrated. Clinton 

 Scollard wrote "Old and New World Lyrics," 

 and Madison J. Cawein, "The Triumph of 

 Music and other Lyrics." The " Poems " of 

 Irwin Russell, mostly in negro dialect, were 

 collected into a memorial volume from five 

 years of " Century " Bric-a-Brac, and A. G. 

 Gordon and Thomas Nelson Page were joint 

 authors of " Befo' de War." "Some Dainty 

 Poems," by Waldo Messaros ; " Beyond the 

 Shadow," by Stuart Sterne; "Joy, and other 

 Poems," by Danske Dandridge ; " Idylls of 

 Israel," by D. J. Donahue ; and " A Little 

 Brother of the Rich," by E. S. Martin, offer 

 no especial features for criticism. The same 

 is true of "Madeleine," by I). C. Brewer; 

 "Maurine," by Mrs. E. Wheeler Wilcox; "Tan- 



cred's Daughter," by 0. G. Blanden; "The 

 Siege of Newport," by T. C. Amory; "Im- 

 mortelles," by Cora M. A. Davis; and "Wan- 

 derers," by W. Winters. E. L. M. Bristol 

 wrote "A Story of the Sands," and John 

 Vance Cheney, "Wood-Blooms." "Judith," 

 an English epic fragment, was edited with a 

 translation and glossary by Prof. A. S. Cook, 

 and "Favorite Folk-Ballads" was the product 

 of several authors. " In the Name of the 

 King " is the title of semi-religious poems by 

 G. Klingle, and "The Inn of Rest," of later 

 poems by May Riley Smith. Tracy Robinson 

 published "The Song of the Palm and other 

 Poems, mostly Tropical," and " The Poems of 

 Emma Lazarus " were issued in two volumes. 

 William D. Howells's lyrical farce, "A Sea 

 Change, or Love's Stowaway," was welcomed 

 by his admirers, and Harry L. Koopman wrote 

 "Woman's Will" and "Orestes." The an- 

 thologies include " After Noontide," by Mar- 

 garet E. White; "Ballads and Rondeaus," by 

 Gleeson White; "Sundry Rhymes from the 

 Days of our Grandmothers," by George W. 

 Edvvards ; and " The Book of Latter-Day Bal- 

 lads, 1858-1888," by Henry F-Randolph. From 

 Mr. Randolph we have also "Fifty Years of 

 English Song, Selections from the Poets of the 

 Reign of Victoria," in four volumes. 



Criticism and General Literal HIT. Of criticism 

 proper there was but little, " Studies in Criti- 

 cism," by Florence Trail, and " A Critical Ex- 

 position of the New Essays of Leibnitz," by J. 

 Dewey, being perhaps the only professedly 

 critical books. The critical element enters 

 largely into others included under general lit- 

 erature, but discrimination is difficult. Prof. 

 Henry W. Parker wrote " The Spirit of Beau- 

 ty," and E. D. Walker " Reincarnation, a Study 

 of Forgotten Truth," which presents evidence 

 in verse and prose corroborative of the doc- 

 trine of pre-existence of sonls. " Social Life 

 and Literature Fifty Years Ago " is a spicy 

 anonymous reply to the critical tone indulged 

 in by prominent authors of the modern school 

 toward that period, satirical and brief. " Books 

 and Men " was a series of essays by Agnes Re- 

 plier, and "Poetry, Comedy, and 'Duty" were 

 handled separately and relatively by C. C. Ev- 

 erett. " Books that have helped me," as dis- 

 coursed upon by several authors in " The Fo- 

 rum," were collected into a volume. " Martin 

 Luther and other Essays " is by F. H. Hedge, 

 and " Practical Occultism " by J. J. Morse. 

 " Master Virgil, the Author of the /Eneid, as 

 he seemed in the Middle Ages," is a novel 

 study by J. S. Tunison, and " Irish Wonders,*' 

 by D. R. McAnally, a popular and entertaining 

 work on the superstitions of that race. Palm- 

 er Cox also treated of " Queer People, such 

 as Goblins, Giants, Merrymen, etc." " Some 

 Thoughts on Life's Battle," by Mark Levy, and 

 " Your Forces, and how to use them," by 

 Prentice Mulford, may be classed together, and 

 supplemented by " Great Thoughts for Little 

 Thinkers," by Lucia T. Ames. "The Great 



