Page:Over the river, and other poems.djvu/11

Rh than it is to-day. Though it cannot compare with Gray's "Elegy" in finished elegance of expression, yet it has a music, a rhythm, a pathos which is unsurpassed. Its consoling power has been tested in the experience of a great multitude of bereaved families, and its healing power is not lessened by time. Surely one has not lived in vain to whom it has been given to speak words of solace, comfort and hope to millions of aching hearts, in measures which cling to the memory and infuse the soul with a heavenly calm.

There are other poems in this volume which evince equal genius, though, perhaps, no other has such elements of enduring popularity. The one entitled "Heaven" has been much admired, and has found its place in one or more collections of the choicest poetry in the English language. Without specifying, it may be said that there are between ten and twenty poems in this book which cannot be read without deep emotion.

But, as the design of this publication was to please friends, many pieces have been inserted, whose interest and value are chiefly personal or local, or both combined. The local and personal associations will pass away, when the poems will cease to have many readers ; yet these poems have great merit, nevertheless They have pleased and cheered and charmed those who were dear to the author, and so have proved their worth. They are re-