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SONGS AND BALLADS
By JOHN JAMES LONSDALE,
Author of "The Ship Boy's Letter," "Robin's Return," &c.
WITH A BRIEF MEMOIR.
_From the ATHENÆUM._
Mr. Lonsdale's songs have not only great merit, but they display the
very variety of which he himself was sceptical. His first lay, "Minna,"
might lay claim even to imagination; nevertheless, for completeness
and delicacy of execution, we prefer some of his shorter pieces. Of
most of these it may be said that they are the dramatic expressions of
emotional ideas. In many cases, however, these songs have the robust
interest of story, or that of character and picture. When it is borne
in mind that by far the greater portion of these lays were written for
music, no small praise must be awarded to the poet, not only for the
suitability of his themes to his purpose, but for the picturesqueness
and fancy with which he has invested them under difficult conditions.
_From the WESTMINSTER REVIEW._
Poetry seems now to flourish more in the north than in the south of
England. Not long ago we noticed an admirable collection of Cumberland
ballads, containing two songs by Miss Blamire, which are amongst the
most beautiful and pathetic in our language. We have now a small volume
by a Cumberland poet, which may be put on the same shelf with Kirke
White. Like Kirke White's, Mr. Lonsdale's life seems to have been
marked by pain and disappointment. Like Kirk White too, he died before
his powers were full developed. A delicate pathos and a vein of humour
characterize his best pieces.
_From the SPECTATOR._
"The Children's Kingdom" is really touching. The picture of the band of
children setting out in the morning bright and happy, lingering in the
forest at noon, and creeping to their journey's end at midnight with
tearful eyes, has a decided charm.
_From NOTES AND QUERIES._
A volume containing some very pleasing poems by a young Cumberland
poet, who but for his early death, would probably have taken a foremost
place amongst the lyrists of our day.