210 REVIEWS — LAST POEMS BY ELIZABETH B. BROWNING. 



Last Poems, hy Mizabeth Barrett Browning, with a Memorial, hy 



Theodore Tilton. New York : James Miller. 1862. 



An American reprint of the sad memorial of England's greatest 

 poetess makes its appearance under this title ; and the interests of 

 English survivors in the rights of her last gift of song, are thus com- 

 mitted, by Robert Browning, her widowed heir, to the invoked cour- 

 tesy of those with whom the pirating of English authorship is their 

 bread of life: — "The right of publishing this book in the United 

 States having been liberally purchased by Mr. James Miller, it is 

 hoped that there will be no interference with the same." The very 

 title of the volume : " Last Poems," is full of tenderest pathos, which 

 repeats itself in " The Last Translation," and the " Last Poem." 

 This last poem tells of the home of the songstress's latest dreams and 

 aspirations. Its theme is " The North and the South," and the poet 

 exclaims : — 



" Oh for the skies that are softer and higher !" 



Sighed the North to the South ; 

 " For the flowers that blaze, and the trees that aspire, 

 And the insects made of a song or a fire !" 



Sighed the North to the South. 



" And oh, for a seer to discern the same!" 



Sighed the South to the North ; 

 " For a poet's tongue of baptismal flame, 

 To call the tree or the flower by its name !" 



Sighed the South to the North. 



The North sent therefore a man of men 

 As a grace to the South ; 



And who was he 1 Abraham Lincoln perhaps ; or " the Young 

 Napoleon ;" or as the special Grace, the man of men sent by the 

 North to the South, shall we guess the chivalrous General Butler ? — 

 It is in Rome, not Washington, that the poet penned her latest poem ; 

 it is Florence and Naples, — not New York and New Orleans, — that 

 exchange their greetings in her song, in words fitter* for a united 

 Italy than for the New World States now seeking for lost brotherhood 

 by fire and sword, as they again exclaim : — 



" Give strenuous souls for belief and prayer," 

 Said the South to the North, 



