The Poems of Arthur Henry Ha/lam, together with his Essay
on the Lyrical Poems of Alfred Tennyson. Edited, with an Introduction, by Richard Le Gallienne. (Mathews and Lane.)—The few grace- fully sympathetic poems written by Arthur Hallam bear, as all readers know, the marks of a finely organised nature and of a highly cultivated mind. They must always be read with interest for the author's sake, but the few beautiful sonnets and lyrics in which utterance is given to his poetical life would not of them- selves, perhaps, suffice to keep his memory green. Arthur Hallam lives, and ever must live, in the noble monument raised to his memory in " In Memoriam," a friendship's offering of priceless value. The present edition of the p:ems is a reprint of the first, and is prefaced by an in' reduction eminently judicious and appre- ciative. Like his father, Arthur Hallam had the instincts of an historian and a critic, and would probably have made his name known in both directions hod not his " thin-spun life" been cut off. His poems were inspired by his love, and the gods make most men of letters poetical when they reach the love-snaking period of life. Mr. Le Gallienno praises his sonnets, saying that they remind him, in their blending of chaste reserve and tenderness, of the sonnets of William Caldwell Roscoe. There is some truth in this. Both of these poets are eminently refined, and write of love with a delicacy and fitness of phrase that is _very charming ; but there is more " body "—if the term may be used—in Roscoe's verse, and more of the born poet. But in saying this we do not forget that there are single lines and occasionally stanzas in this little volume of which any singer might be proud.
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