And will not, then, the immortal armies scorn 10 Lord Houghton retains the credit as a poet which he earned as Mr. Monckton Milnes; and characteristic of the culture of our day is the transmission of a power of song from the elder Lord Lytton to his son, a poet of mark, who first wrote under the name of Owen Meredith, but who, at the end of our quarter of a century, collects in his own name his works. One of his first successes was with an English play on the Greek model, “Clytemnestra.” There is no prominent form of the thought of the third quarter of the nineteenth century-religious, social, or political-of which honest and musical expression cannot be found somewhere in our current English verse. But still the influence of Wordsworth quietly extends, and much writing of the better poets of the time seeks, as his did, to elevate the daily life of man, to make us feel the charm of daily sights and sounds, and gather wisdom for our use out of the book of Nature. That modern English influence which has made William Morris seek to tell old stories, as nearly as he can, in Chaucer's manner-a desire for fresh and true life, let us hope; the best love for a worthy past is in these lines by another good poet, Aubrey de Vere: Under the name of "Songs of Two Worlds, by a New Writer," a first, second, and third series of poems by Lewis Morris appeared within the last three or four years of the third quarter of the century. They touch the mysteries of time with faith and hope, and bring to common things of life the sympathetic insight of the poet; witness his "Ode on a Fair Spring Morning," and "The Organ Boy." One poem in the second series, called "The New Order," looks boldly on to the fulfilled hope of the nations in a future that is "not for us, who watch to-day and burn.” These are among the Songs : They bend what shall be, to their will; And blind alike to doubt and dread, The End, for which they are, fulfil. 30 Sounds at the portal, giving notice due THE BIRTH OF VERSE. Blind thoughts which occupy the brain, Dumb melodies which fill the ear, Dim perturbations, precious pain, A gleam of hope, a chill of fear,— And first no definite thought there is Piped to the listening woods around, Till, when the chambers of the soul The music, and its end prepares; Or haply, thoughts which glow and burn Then of a sudden, full, complete, The strong strain bursting into sound, Words come with rhythmic rush of feet, Fit music girds the language round, And with a sweetness all unsought Soars up the winged embodied thought. But howsoever they may rise, Fit words and music come to birth; There soars an angel to the skies, There walks a Presence on the earthA something which shall yet inspire Myriads of souls unborn with fire. And when his voice is hushed and dumb, The flame burnt out, the glory dead, 10 20 Of strange wayfarer, like staid seneschal, Entrance, save to such thoughts as, pondered o'er, II. Will makes the man; yea! they are men, that do Is big with th' harvest: "Slowly," say'st thou, “grew It ripened;" be it so: the mighty law Of Nature's subtle process well might awe Which, daring wisely, dares but to fulfil. He feels a thrill of wonder come Another of the many singers of our day produced a book of verse to which he gave, by chance, the same title as that of the work just referred to. Yielding the name of "Songs of Two Worlds" to the poet who had then just come before the public, this writer changed the title of his little volume, which is now called "Songs of the Dawn and of the Day." We take from a book thus accidentally suggested, in illustration of the wide diffusion in our time of the musical expression of right earnest thought, THREE SONNETS ON THE WILL. I. Will makes the man; not that fond passing mood On thee, she were not Fortune, did she wear The next poem is by Mrs. Augusta Webster : THE GIFT. O happy glow, O sun-bathed tree, O golden-lighted river, A love-gift has been given me, I came upon you something sad, With a quick sense of pleasure. Half sick of life's vexed story, And now it grows of you a part, Steeped in your golden glory. A smile into my heart has crept O happy glow, O sun-bathed tree, A love-gift has been given me, And which of you is giver? 10 10 10 10 20 Surrounded by such voices of the living, and of the dead who have by some of us been known and loved, we work to-day. Here ends one section of the record of our song and talk among the furrows of the field we till. The end is yet to come; NOT THIS THE END: still faithful song A path untravelled yet. As runs the rill from rock to mere, As rolls the world, sphere tuned to sphere, So has each life of labour here Its course to music set: And faithfully, from farthest days When Cædmon gave to God the praise, Have English hearts in English lays Still hymned the battle-song Of Duty, England's champion knight, Who, daily striving, gathers might, That shall, at last, assure the right, And overcome the wrong. In Chaucer's verse his name was Love; One called him Piers, of heavenly mind, When Spenser sings, true, loving, just, Our Milton whom the truth made free; Our singers of like strain With unlike voices and one soul, Each with the yearning of the whole, Who next shall press towards the goal Glad Chaucer of the latest day, What Spensers, Miltons, yet to be, Shalt thou look back on ere thou see, In ages long before, These toilers singing through the night, These singers toiling with their might To turn the darkness into light By cherishing that friend, Duty, whose armour lights the place Because he moves with even pace Full in the light of God's own face, Our champion to THE END. 10 20 30 40 50 Abbey Walk, Robert Henryson's, 76, 77. Adrian, Emperor, his Lines on Death, 341, 351, 352. Advice, The, by Sir Walter Raleigh, 211. to a Courtier, Quintin Shaw's, 128, 129. Ella, Chatterton's Song to, 390, 391. Age, Old, Beauty of, "To Agnes," by James Montgomery, 440 Alcæus, Sir William Jones's Ode in Imitation of, 398. "All things are as they are used," by George Turbervile, 201. Allingham, William, 487. Althea, Richard Lovela e from Prison to, 314, 315. "A man's a man for a' that," by Robert Burns, 409. Amoret, Edmund Waller to, 301, 302. Andrea del Sarto, by Robert Browning, 469-471. Anna Matilda to Della Crusca, 412. Anti-Jacobin, Poetry of the, 428-434. Apocalypse of Golias, Walter Map's, 12-16. Apparel, John Bunyan upon, 341. Apple pie, by William King, 372, 373. Arab to his Mistress, by Walter Savage Landor, 463. Ariel's Song, by William Shakespeare, 252. Art of Cookery, by William King, 372. Preaching, by Christopher Pitt, 371, 372. "As it fell upon a day," by Richard Barnfield, 261. Astrophel and Stella, Sonnets by Sir Philip Sidney, 215-217 Auld Robin Gray, by Lady Anne Barnard, 416, 417. Authority, The Slaves and Darlings of, by Fulke Greville, 225. B. Bachelor's Song, by Thomas Flatman, 341. Baillie, Joanna, 475, 476. Bait, The, by John Donne, 275. Ballad, A Border, by Walter Scott, 438. A Pastoral, by William Shenstone, 373-375. A Serious, by Alexander Brome, 317. [Chevy-Chase and other ballads will be found under Ballets, Thomas Morley's First Book of, 245. Barnard, Lady Anne, 416, 417. Barnfield, Richard, 261. Basset, A Song of, by Sir George Etherege, 337. Bastille, William Cowper on the, 399; William Wordsworth Battle of Naseby, by Thomas Babington Macaulay, 461. Baviad, William Gifford's, 413-416. Beaumont, Francis, 272, 273. Beauty, True, A Sonnet on, by Edmund Spenser, 230. "Believe me, if all those endearing young charms," Song by Thomas Moore, 455. Berlin, 1871, by Lewis Morris, 488. Bermudas, by Andrew Marvell, 319. Best Thing in the World, The, by Mrs. Browning, 471. Bicorn and Chichevache, John Lydgate's, 54-56. Birth of Verse, The, by Lewis Morris, 489. Blank Verse, by Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, 159. Bloomfield, Robert, 438, 439. Border Ballad, by Walter Scott, 438. Bothie of Tober-na-Vuolich, the, by Arthur Hugh Clough, Pas- sage from, 478. Boucher, A., 169. Bowles, William Lisle, 410, 411. Braid Cloth, by Robert Fergusson, 392. Breton, Nicholas, 243, 244. British Album, Verse-writing of the, 411, 412. Broken Charm, The, by Joshua Sylvester, 276. Brooke, Fulke Greville, Lord, 220-226. Browne, William, 268; 287, 288. Elizabeth Barrett, 471-473; 488. Brownrigg, Mrs., Inscription for the Door of her Cell, by |