therefore, I have made the balance incline in favour of these. Jeffrey, reviewing Crabbe in the Edinburgh Review, once spoke of him as our Rembrandt in poetry, He meant, I suppose, that Crabbe, like Rembrandt, excels in touching the depths of things," while depicting minutely the most commonplace people in the most everyday surroundings and episodes. But his purely light comedies are also excellent reading. One of the most perfect of them, "The Frank Courtship," has been included in this volume. To resume, then, it has been my endeavour to put together such a selection as may lead those who are not acquainted with Crabbe to find pleasure in his poetry; and to those who know him well may be of service as a single volume containing, I hope, that which they like best. If, in some degree, the book serves these purposes I shall be well satisfied. BERNARD HOLLAND. 1899. CRABBE'S POEMS SMUGGLERS AND LABOURERS LO: where the heath, with withering brake grown o'er, Lends the light turf that warms the neighbouring poor; From thence a length of burning sand appears, There poppies nodding, mock the hope of toil; Where are the swains, who, daily labour done, With rural games play'd down the setting sun? A Where now are these?-Beneath yon cliff they stand, Here, wand'ring long, amid these frowning fields, As on their neighbouring beach yon swallows stand, Fled from these shores where guilt and famine reign, But these are scenes where Nature's niggard hand Gave a spare portion to the famish'd land; |