20 FEBRUARY 1864, Page 22

Poems and Songs. By Charles Welsh Mason. (Bell and Daldy.)—It

would be unjust to deny that the author has both taste and feeling, but the principal poem, a monody on the death of the Prince Consort, is, we think, an unfortunate subject. It provokes comparison with "In Memo- riam," and we have always thought that even there in order to acquit the poet of exaggeration the reader needs the knowledge that he is treat- ing of feelings which he had really experienced for a friend whom he had really lost. This charge we have the less scruple in preferring against Mr. Mason, as we detect the same fault in his minor poems. This volume in itself is not, we think, worth much, but it may well be a prelude to something better.