leer, neither requisite nor convenient as auxiliaries to his speech: and to do either of these things is to fail in perfect taste. Sometimes, not very often, we are allowed to reach the close of a poem of his without having our attention jogged and called off by a single interpolation of this kind; and then we feel unalloyed--what we constantly feel also even under the contrary conditions--how exquisite a poetic sense and how choice a cunning of hand were his. On the whole, we can pronounce Hood the finest English poet between the generation of Shelley and the generation of Tennyson. [Footnote 4: Horne's _New Spirit of the Age_.] CONTENTS. To Hope The Departure of Summer The Sea of Death To an Absentee Lycus the Centaur The Two Peacocks of Bedfont Hymn to the Sun Midnight To a Sleeping Child To Fancy Fair Ines To a False Friend Ode--Autumn Sonnet--Silence Sonnet Sonnet--to an Enthusiast To a Cold Beauty Sonnet--Death Serenade Verses in an Album The Forsaken Song Song Birthday Verses I Love Thee Lines False Poets and True The Two Swans Ode on a Distant Prospect of Clapham Academy Song The Water Lady Autumn I Remember, I Remember! The Poet's Portion Ode to the Moon Sonnet A Retrospective Review Ballad Time, Hope and Memory Flowers Ballad Ruth The Plea of the Midsummer Fairies Hero and Leander Ballad Autumn Ballad The Exile To ---- Ode to Melancholy Sonnet--to my Wife Sonnet on Receiving a Gift Sonnet The Dream of Eugene Aram Sonnet--for the 14th of February The Death-Bed Anticipation To a Child Embracing his Mother Stanzas Sonnet to Ocean To ---- Lines Stanzas Ode to Rae Wilson, Esq. To my Daughter Miss Kelmansegg and her Precious Leg The Lee Shore Sonnet The Elm Tree Lear Sonnet The Song of the Shirt The Pauper's Christmas Carol The Haunted House The Mary The Lady's Dream The Key The Workhouse Clock The Bridge of Sighs The Lay of the Laborer Stanzas Ode to Mr. Graham A _Friendly_ Address to Mrs. Fry _in_ Newgate Ode to Richard Martin, Esq. Ode to the Great Unknown Ode to Joseph Grimaldi, Senior An Address to the Steam Washing Company Ode to Captain Parry Ode to W. Kitchener, M. D. The Last Man Faithless Sally Brown As it Fell Upon a Day The Stag-eyed Lady The Irish Schoolmaster Faithless Nelly Gray Bianca's Dream The Demon-ship Tim Turpin Death's Ramble A Sailor's Apology for Bow-Legs The Volunteer The Epping Hunt The Drowning Ducks A Storm at Hastings Lines to a Lady The Angler's Farewell Ode--to the Advocates for the Removal of Smithfield Market A Report from Below "I'm not a Single Man" The Supper Superstition The Duel A Singular Exhibition at Somerset House Lines to Mary The Compass with Variations The Ghost The Fall Our Village A Public Dinner Sally Simpkin's Lament Ode to Sir Andrew Agnew, Bart The Lost Heir The Fox and the Hen The Poacher A Waterloo Ballad A Lay of Real Life The Sweep's Complaint The Desert-Born Agricultural Distress Domestic Poems The Green Man Hit or Miss The Forlorn Shepherd's Complaint Lieutenant Luff