E620700B. Last Poems (New York).
The Ladies’ Repository (Cincinnati), July 1862, p. 445.
Listed in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 30, 368.
We have lately given in our columns a sketch of the life of Mrs. Browning, together with a somewhat careful estimate of her poetic contributions. The matter is fresh in the minds of our readers. We need not, therefore, now go over the ground again. But we—with thousands of our readers who heartily appreciate the genius of the muse so lately departed—welcome these “last lays.” Some of them are entitled to rank among the best of her productions, and all of them have a sacred charm. The Memorial by Mr. Tilton is delicately appreciative, and in the main the estimate of her character and genius is just. The writer skillfully draws a vail over her great life-sorrow, yet leaving just enough of it exposed to our view to awaken sympathy. He also sketches with equal fidelity her early literary failures and her subsequent almost unparalleled success. In characterizing the several prominent poems of Mrs. Browning the memorialist is very felicitous. The general reader will be much aided to a thorough appreciation of the author by first reading the memorial. Yet we must except to the statement that “as a religious poet Mrs. Browning is more devout than George Herbert, and more fervid than Charles Wesley,” as being somewhat extravagant. So also is the idea that “Hannah More’s Private Devotions are not so devotional.” The work is elegantly published in “blue and gold,” and is uniform with the three volumes before published. The entire set—four volumes—is sold for $3.
Reviewed:
Last Poems (EBB), New York: James Miller, 1862.
___________________
