*

W. G. SIMMS, LL. D., is referred to in the _Southern Literary Gazette_
as having delivered in Charleston lately an elaborate poem entitled "The
City of the Silent," on the occasion of the consecration of a beautiful
rural cemetery near that city.

* * * * *

DR. OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES is writing a biographical sketch of the late
Dr. Parkman, to form a part of a work called "The Benefactors of the
Medical School of Harvard University," of which the poet is himself one
of the professors.

* * * * *

PIERRE DUPONT, the Parisian Socialist poet, has lately issued a new book
containing six songs that have not before been published. Dupont is as
much a favorite with the people as Beranger, and though he does not
equal the latter in originality of fancy and gayety of spirit, he even
excels him in revolutionary point and enthusiasm. His songs are heard in
every workshop and at every popular banquet, their words and music are
universally familiar, and when the clubs were permitted, each meeting
was opened and closed with a song of Dupont's, the whole audience
joining in the chorus. This was done instinctively and without previous
arrangement. It often happened, too, that after some orator had
delivered an ardent speech, Dupont would appear at the tribune with a
new song which he had composed on the inspiration of the moment. Now
each new political event is sure of a response from this poet; one of
his late productions is the _Chant du Vote_ (vote song), in which he
denounces the attempt of the Government to destroy universal suffrage.
Perhaps his most powerful production is the _Marsellaise of Hunger_; the
hold this has taken on the public may be judged from the fact, that when
at the theatre of the Porte St. Martin a piece was performed, called
_Misery_, founded on incidents in the Irish famine, when the curtain
went down at the end of the first act, the beholders spontaneously set
up this song. So in the same theatre, when the piece representing the
downfall of Rome was performed (this piece afterwards became famous
through its prohibition by the Government), one of the spectators in the
pit began the chorus of Dupont's Soldier's Song:

"Les peuples sont pour nous des freres
Et les tyrans des ennemis,"

the whole house joined in, and the performance had to be interrupted
till the song was ended. The _Chant des Transportes_ wherever it is
heard move