led _A Blot on the 'Scutcheon_, and a play
called _The Dutchess of Cleves_. In 1850 appeared _Christmas Eve_ and
_Easter Day_. Concerning all these, it may be said that it is singular and
sad that a real poetic gift, like that of Browning, should be so shrouded
with faults of conception and expression. What leads us to think that many
of these are an affectation, is that he has produced, almost with the
simplicity of Wordsworth, those charming sketches, _The Good News from
Ghent to Aix_, and _An Incident at Ratisbon_.

Among his later poems we specially commend _A Death in the Desert_, and
_Pippa Passes_, as less obscure and more interesting than any, except the
lyrical pieces just mentioned. It is difficult to show in what manner
Browning represents his age. His works are only so far of a modern
character that they use the language of to-day without subsidizing its
simplicity, and abandon the old musical couplet without presenting the
intelligible if commonplace thought which it used to convey.

OTHER POETS OF THE LATEST PERIOD.

_Reginald Heber_, 1783-1826: a godly Bishop of Calcutta. He is most
generally known by one effort, a little poem, which is a universal
favorite, and has preached, from the day it appeared, eloquent sermons in
the cause of missions--_From Greenland's Icy Mountains_. Among his other
hymns are _Brightest and Best of the Sons of the Morning_, and _The Son of
God goes forth to War_.

_Barry Cornwall_, born 1790: this is a _nom de plume_ of _Bryan Proctor_,
a pleasing, but not great poet. His principal works are _Dramatic Scenes_,
_Mirandola_, a tragedy, and _Marcian Colonna_. His minor poems are
characterized by grace and fluency. Among these are _The Return of the
Admiral_; _The Sea, the Sea, the Open Sea_; and _A Petition to Time_. He
also wrote essays and tales in prose--a _Life of Edmund Keane_, and a
_Memoir of Charles Lamb_. His daughter, _Adelaide Anne Proctor_, is a
gifted poetess, and has written, among other poems, _Legends and Lyrics_,
and _A Chaplet of Verses_.

_James Sheridan Knowles_, 1784-1862: an actor and dramatist. He left the
stage and became a Baptist minister. His plays were very successful upon
the stage. Among them, those of chief merit are _The Hunchback_,
_Virginius and Caius Gracchus_, and _The Wife, a Tale of Mantua_.

_Jean Ingelow_, born 1830: one of the most popular of the later English
poets. _The Song of Seven_, and _My Son's Wife Elizabeth_, are extremel