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and to admirers of Mrs. Piatt in particular. The poem which gives the book its title may be quoted as a characteristic specimen. . . . But there is not any piece in all the volume that does not please by its delicate suggestiveness of thought and grace of verse.'
Truth.
'I must recommend to you strongly Mrs. Piatt's "The Witch in the Glass," wherein you have the American muse in all its changefulness, ranging from the delicate esprit of the opening poem to the poignancy of "The Night Cometh." Mrs. Piatt is the best woman poet America has produced, and is, perhaps, the first woman to reproduce in poetry with a passionate sincerity all a woman's varying emotions.'
The Graphic, February 2, 1889.
'The poems are largely charged with child-life, and with much power and sweetness does the author give expression to the naive thoughts and imaginings of the young. One of the most simple and yet taking of these poems is "The Answer of the Gardener." The gardener has planted the tree, and the boy asks him, "with wonder in his smile,"—"Why don't you put the leaves on, though?"
Lifted his eyes, took off his hat—
'The Other Man, the One up there,'
He answered, 'He must look to that.'"
The very young American girl is allowed to soliloquise with most amusing childish worldliness in "After Her First Party." Altogether, Mrs. Piatt is very bright, correct, and pleasant in her versification, and there is real pathos and piquancy in her child-pictures.'
The Saturday Review, January 12, 188q.
'A new volume of her charming and vigorous verses. In "A New Knight" and "The Story of Little Henry" she has caught the real spirit of childhood—a feat which many greater writers have essayed in vain.'
Figaro, August 31, 1889.
'For those who have been privileged to read Mrs. Piatt's former volumes it is unnecessary to multiply quotations, for they will assuredly get her latest work for themselves; whilst those of our readers to whom the sweet though pensive music of her muse is unknown would do well to make themselves acquainted with "The Witch in the Glass."'
Dublin Evening Mail, December 26, 1888.
'Here is a thing as pathetic as Wordsworth's "We are Seven" ["One of two"]. . . . But we might quote every piece in the volume as an illustration of its merits. Mrs. Piatt does no slovenly work. Every verse of hers is like the spray of a rose-bush in June, and the roses are of the most exquisite tint and perfume.'
Public Opinion, March 1, 1829.
'Much of it is of slight texture; but even the slightest are good.'
ELLIOT STOCK, 62 PATERNOSTER Row, London.
