s. And, when thus the fight
Faltered and men once bold with faces white
Turned this and that way in excuse to flee,
I only stood, and by the foeman's might
Was overborne and mangled cruelly.

Then crawled I to her feet, in whose dear cause
I made this venture, and 'Behold,' I said,
'How I am wounded for thee in these wars.'
But she, 'Poor cripple, would'st thou I should wed
A limbless trunk?' and laughing turned from me.
Yet she was fair, and her name 'Liberty.'

The sonnet beginning

A prison is a convent without God--
Poverty, Chastity, Obedience
Its precepts are:

is very fine; and this, written just after entering the gaol, is
powerful:

Naked I came into the world of pleasure,
And naked come I to this house of pain.
Here at the gate I lay down my life's treasure,
My pride, my garments and my name with men.
The world and I henceforth shall be as twain,
No sound of me shall pierce for good or ill
These walls of grief. Nor shall I hear the vain
Laughter and tears of those who love me still.

Within, what new life waits me! Little ease,
Cold lying, hunger, nights of wakefulness,
Harsh orders given, no voice to soothe or please,
Poor thieves for friends, for books rules meaningless;
This is the grave--nay, hell. Yet, Lord of Might,
Still in Thy light my spirit shall see light.

But, indeed, all the sonnets are worth reading, and _The Canon of
Aughrim_, the longest poem in the book, is a most masterly and dramatic
description of the tragic life of the Irish peasant. Literature is not
much indebted to Mr. Balfour for his sophistical _Defence of Philosophic
Doubt_, which is one of the dullest books we know, but it must be
admitted that by sending Mr. Blunt to gaol he has converted a clever
rhymer into an earnest and deep-thinking poet. The narrow confines of a
prison cell seem to suit the 'sonnet's scanty plot of ground,' and an
unjust imprisonment for a noble cause strengthens as well as deepens the
nature.

_In Vinculis_. By Wilfrid Scawen Blunt, Author of _The Wind and the
Whirlwind_, _The Love Sonnets of Proteus_, _etc. etc._ (Kegan Paul.)

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO WALT WHITMAN
(_Pall Mall Gazette_, January 25, 1889.)

'No one will get to my verses who insists upon viewing them as a literary
performance . . . or as aiming mainly towards art and ae