Selections from the Poetical Works of Robert Browning. Second Series.
(Smith and Elder.)—In this volume, which contains several of Mr. Browning's best poems, some are included which we cer- tainly would not have given a place in it. For instance, " A Wall" is a flagrant example of the forced interpretation and hard in- harmoniousness that are faults sedulously cultivated, it would almost seem, by Mr. Browning ; and " Pisgah-Sights," in spite of earnest endeavours to discover in the lines something which the writer may have supposed himself to mean, still produces the impression of non- sense-verses. The Selections is, notwithstanding, very welcome, with the charming "Garden Fancies," the fine "Death in the Desert," our old friends " Bishop Bloagram," the Cavalier Tunes, and many another lay of a time when Mr. Browning did not dormer dens is terrible so lavishly as he has done of late.
Previous page
