A POT OF PRESERVES FROM MOUNT PARNASSUS :

SPECIMENS OF MODERN POETRY.

GREAT diversity of opinion exists as to the present condition and
prospects of English poetry. Many people maintain that the poetic
spark is extinct in the land; or, in more homely phrase, that “that
sort of thing has gone out altogether.” Others are of opinion, that
so far from it being “all up” with poetry—the genuine article, if it
could be ‘met with, would go down as well as ever it did.

We ourselves are far from agreeing with old gentlemen who tell
us “ We have no poets now-a-days” (though we quite approve of the
advice with which the lament is generally followed up—namely,
that “you should read Pope, sir”). It is a mistake to suppose that
the present depressed state of the verse market is attributable to a
deficiency of supply. There are plenty of manufacturers, who are
constantly producing large quantities of stuff—of a more or less last-
ing description.

Nor can it be objected that we have no schools of Poetry. Several
new ones have been founded in our own time—conducted upon prin-

ciples of the strictest propriety—of which we entertain the highest