Poems by Thomas Hood. Again illustrated by Birket Foster. (Maxon
) —Here are thirteen poems, most of them of the serious sort, which, being Hood's, we are, of course, glad to see again ; and here, also, some engravings after Mr. Birket Foster, which, being his work, we are equally, of course, charmed with looking at. In a sense the pictures are illus- trations of the poems. The imaginative landscape with its sombre fore- ground which faces 'The Dream of Eugene Aram " will do well for the scene of the crime, but it might do as well for many other things. "Hero and Leander " is illustrated by a pretty sketch which presum- ably represents the Hellespont, but has nothing whatever to do with Hood's poem, with its quaint passion and pathos. Then, again, we have the "Mermaid of Margate," set forth by two sketches of that watering-place which we might expect to see in a guide-book, could guide-books command the services of so distinguished an artist. "Our Lady's Chapel," "A Legend of Coblentz," and "A Legend of Navarre," both poems of the ghastly-humorous kind, are duly furnished with Pictures of Coblentz and a castle in Navarre. We cannot call this really "illustrating" poems. "The Haunted House" is the one exception which we would make in our criticism. The two pictures do help one to realise the verse. Possibly the "Storm at Hastings" may be made another.
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