MR. ALLINGHAM'S POEMS.
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR.']
SIR,—In the notice (May 4th) of my "Songs, Ballads, and Stories," your reviewer inadvertently mutilates and makes unin- telligible the only poem (a very short and trifling one) which he professes to quote. He omits two stanzas out of five. As he proceeds to criticise the little effusion somewhat severely, I am sure you will see the justice of putting it before your readers as it is printed in my volume :—
"HALF-WAKING.
I thought it was the little bed I slept in long ago;
A straight white curtain at the head, And two smooth knobs below.
I thought I saw the nursery fire, And in a chair well known My mother sat, and did not tire With reading all alone.
If I should make the slightest sound To show that I'm awake,
She'd rise, and lap the blankets round, My pillow softly shake ;
Kiss me, and turn my face to see The shadows on the wall,
And then sing Rousseau's Dream to me, Till fast asleep I fall.
But this is not my little bed; That time is far away ; '3Iong strangers cold I live instead, From dreary day to day."
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