[Sidenote: Sarah Flower Adams (1805-1848).]
Sarah Flower Adams is sure of at least a small niche in the temple of the English poets were it but for the beautiful hymn, 'Nearer, my God, to thee.' Her _Vivia Perpetua_ is an ill-constructed drama, partly redeemed by fine passages.
[Sidenote: William Allingham (1824-1889).]
William Allingham was an Irish poet, of much taste, but of no great power. His inspiration is strangely fitful and uncertain, and after his removal to London, in consequence of the success of his earlier verses, it seemed almost wholly to desert him. He was for a time editor of _Fraser's Magazine_.
[Sidenote: John Stuart Blackie (1809-1895).]
John Stuart Blackie, for many years Professor of Greek in Edinburgh University, was a very vigorous miscellaneous writer. He translated Æschylus, the _Iliad_ and _Faust_. He was very successful in the lighter lyrical strain, and appears at his best in his rollicking and amusing university songs.
[Sidenote: Robert Barnabas Brough (1828-1860).]
Robert Barnabas Brough was the author of _Songs of the Governing Classes_ (1859), a small collection of pieces, chiefly satirical, and remarkable for their vigour, point and sincerity. Strength of feeling, clearness of intellect and wit are his characteristics. Brough was generally very much in earnest, but in his _Neighbour Nellie_ he showed that he could touch lighter themes very charmingly.
[Sidenote: Charles Stuart Calverley (1831-1884).]
Charles Stuart Calverley, the scholarly and witty author of _Verses and Translations_ (1862) and _Fly Leaves_ (1872), had a faculty for more serious things, but, partly from indifference, partly because of the accident which made great effort in his later years impossible, he never wrote anything worthy of his talents. What he has left however is the very best of its kind. He is one of the most skilful of translators; and his parodies and satiric verse are excellent.
[Sidenote: Mortimer Collins (1827-1876).]
Mortimer Collins, poet and novelist, had a very happy knack for the lighter kinds of lyrical verse, half playful and half serious. Under pressure of circumstances he wrote too much, and the failure to 'polish and refine' tells against a great deal of his work.