Reviews

R490101A.  Poems (1849).

The Morning Herald, 1 January 1849, p. 6.

Addendum to The Brownings’ Correspondence, vol. 15.

The contents of these volumes are quite a medley, consisting of dramas, tragedies, romances, and miscellaneous poems. Of the author’s industry and perseverance there can be no question, but we apprehend that few who peruse these volumes will entertain a very exalted idea of his poetical abilities. The following piece, taken quite at random, from the miscellaneous portion of the poetry, is a fair sample of all the rest:—

home thoughts, from the sea.

Nobly, nobly Cape Saint Vincent to the north-west died away;

Sunset ran, one glorious blood-red, reeking into Cadiz Bay;

Bluish mid the burning water, full in face Trafalgar lay;

In the dimmest north-east distance, dawned Gibraltar grand and gray;

“Here and here did England help me,—how can I help England!”—say,

Whoso turns as I, this evening, turn to God to praise and pray,

While Jove’s planet rises younder, silent over Africa.

The plays, dramas, and tradedies are not so obnoxious to unfavourable criticism, perhaps because in those the author does not frequently attempt to gather the flowers of Parnassus.

Reviewed:

Poems (RB), London: Chapman & Hall, 1849.

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