sonorous refrain seems to be an almost essential addendum. Auld Lang Syne may be taken as a typical example, while Burns and Moore must be considered as our joint kings of the "flowingbowl" minstrels. We are not ashamed, however, to admit our inferiority to the Germans in this particular form of poetic expression.

5.-THE POLITICAL SONG.

The political song requires mention here, though it merits only the rank of verse as distinct from poetry. It is essentially ephemeral and partisan in character, and is devoid, for the most part, of noble and generous thoughts. Though several of the Jacobite songs breathe forth a spirit of devoted loyalty, they are as antiquated in sentiment to-day as the political squibs of Swift and the Tory sneers of the Anti-Facobin. Moore, Elliott, and Mackay in recent times have written some political verses that deserve to live.*

In addition to the varieties of songs already enumerated, there are others that can only be classed under such a vague heading as purely Sentimental, of which Tennyson's "Break, break, break," and Miss Proctor's "Lost Chord" may be cited as typical examples.

Then there is another variety in which the narrative element is more prominent than the lyrical: of such, Song-Ballads, "Auld Robin Gray," and

ee" Political Verse," edited by George Saintsbury (Percival & Co.)

Q

"Three Fishers" and "Sands o' Dee"

Kingsley's
are specimens.

And, lastly, there is the Comic Song, which, in those days of "penny dreadfuls," is rapidly becoming a popular favourite.

Before concluding this brief notice of lyric art, it seems necessary to say a few words respecting those more complex compositions of the kind that are specially designed for elaborate musical treatment, embracing solo, chorus, and recitative, viz., the librettos of the Oratorio, the Opera, and the Cantata.

The Oratorio, always sacred in its theme, and the Opera, always secular, resemble each other in nearly every other respect. Both are essentially dramatic: they have separate characters with distinct rôles, and depict changing scenes and continuous action. The latter is always acted, and embellished with all the accessories of a regular drama; the former, no doubt solely on account of its subject matter, is rendered with the picturesque effects of sound only; but no one can listen to an adequate representation of such an oratorio as Mendelssohn's Elijah without mentally realising the dramatic situations as though they were visibly before him. In both, also, the lyrical element takes the form of song, duet, trio and chorus, the narrative portion being rendered in recitative.

The Cantata is usually devoid of the dramatic element altogether. It gives expression to the

varied emotions that arise in the contemplation of heroic deeds and lofty ideals, now pensive and mournful, now frenzied or jubilant. Several of our noblest odes which partake of this character have already been clothed in melody and harmony that at once add to their intrinsic beauty and widen the field of their appreciators.

The adaptation to our own tongue of works of this kind composed in other languages-for they are susceptible of great variety of treatmentaffords excellent scope for the exercise of the purely technical side of the Art of Versification.

POETIC TRIFLES.

IN this chapter we wish to direct the student's footsteps into those by-paths of the garden of poesy where grow innumerable wild flowers with pretty blossoms and polished berries, which, for want of a more suitable name, are known as Social or Occasional verses.* It may be said that they stand in the same relation to the higher forms of poetry that a pyrotechnic display does to "the immortal Jove's dread clamours." Poets and scholars in all ages and countries have taken delight, in their leisure moments, in throwing off these metrical playthings, as momentary thought or passing incident suggested the occasion. Here, for instance, are some verses tossed off "in the ten minutes before dinner:"

Fast falls the snow, O lady mine!
Sprinkling the lawn with crystals fine :
But, by the gods, we won't repine.
While we're together

We'll chat and rhyme, and kiss and dine,
Defying weather.

It would be next to sacrilege to class Pope's Rape of the Lock under this heading, but it is undoubtedly the most brilliant Occasional poem in the language.

So stir the fire, and pour the wine,
And let those sea-green eyes divine
Pour their love-madness into mine :
I don't care whether

'Tis snow or sun, or rain or shine,
If we're together.

Mortimer Collins:

These minor efforts may result in original experiments, or in translations, adaptations, or even parodies of favourite passages from other writers. How many scores of times have Horatian gems been adapted to passing circumstances by busy men of the world in their leisure moments, just to see if they had retained their old skill in verse. making! And the same cultured taste leads also to the turning of our own poetic beauties into other tongues.

Social verse has been aptly described as "the poetry of men who belong to society, who have a keen sympathy with the lightsome tone and airy jesting of fashion; who are not disturbed by the flippances of small talk, but, on the contrary, can see the gracefulness of which it is capable, and who, nevertheless, amid all the froth of society, feel that there are depths in our nature which even in the gaiety of drawing-rooms cannot be forgotten. It is the poetry of bitter-sweet, of sentiment that breaks into humour, and of thought, which, lest it should be too solemn, breaks into laughter. When society becomes refined, it begins to dread the exhibition of strong feeling, no matter whether real or simulated. In such an atmosphere emotion takes