E. W. H.—Browning and Tennyson are most emphatically not “minor poets.” Some consider Wordsworth as greater than either. Scott, as a poet, would rank below these three. It is a difficult matter to appraise poets exactly, as you suggest, but the work of Wordsworth, Browning, and Tennyson stands in the foremost rank of English literature. E. M. M.—1. You cannot certainly “take lessons from the Royal Academy or College without entering.” To take lessons is to “enter.” But you can be examined at a local centre by the Associated Board of both institutions. The cost of training at the Royal Academy of Music is £11 11s. per term, with an entrance fee of £5 5s. The fee at the Royal College is £40 a year.—2. Only two questions, please. Your age would be all right. Apply to the Secretary of either institution for fuller details. BLUEBIRD.—There are numerous collections of temperance recitations. “The Geese” is a favourite recitation, but requires two characters. A “Reciter” of Alfred H. Miles’ series (6d. each) would probably suit you. Inquire at any bookseller’s. ALOFA.—1. Your verses are perhaps a little above the average of those sent to us for criticism. It is pleasant to see the beauties—too seldom appreciated—of our suburban common-land made the subject of a poem. One line is faulty— “Shall fill all the future with undying perfume.” where, as you will observe, a forced emphasis on “un” must be used to make the line scan. But for this error, we should say that verse—the second—was the best. Perhaps the first now deserves most praise.—2. We can hardly encourage you to persevere in writing “realistic fiction” without seeing a specimen of your work, but from your poem, and your pleasant letter, we should judge you had some talent. GEORGINA.—We presume that yours are the poems signed “M. D. A.” In the great accumulation of MSS., it is a help to us if the same name or pseudonym marks both letter and manuscript. There is much that is defective in the form of these two poems; but the idea embodied in both is striking. We should advise you to study the laws of poetic form, and then perhaps try to express these ideas in a more finished way.