9
CHILD'S WORLD BALLADS.
By Sarah M. B. Piatt.
Small Crown 8vo. Parchment, 3s. 6d. Embossed paper boards, 2s. 6d.
Published in the United States by ROBERT CLARK & CO., Cincinnati, Prices $1 and $1.25.
The Scotsman (Edinburgh), July 11, 1887.
'Mrs. Piatt's claim to be considered one of the chief—if, indeed, not at the head—of American poetesses, has been generally acknowledged by the press of this country. She is at her best in poems dealing with child-life; though not necessarily in poems intended to be read by children. . . . The longest ballad in the collection, "Three Little Emigrants," is not unfamiliar. . . . It is a tale of three little children, who, resolving to seek their fortunes in the Far West, escaped from their nursery and wandered down to Cork Harbour, but, as one of the babies laments, the ship sailed without them. "Did the grey Admiral from Spain look westward with such longing eyes?" asks the author in concluding her narrative, with a touch of that highest form of humour which is nearly akin to sentiment. "The Child Mozart and St. John of Bohemia" is a lovely little ballad, describing how the boy musician was taken from his poverty-stricken home to play at the Court of Maria Theresa, and how he wanted to marry his new baby friend, Marie Antoinette. Mrs. Piatt's poems, as already intimated, are not intended to be read by young children; to older ones they appeal in many ways. Indeed, it may be said that the child who is too old to appreciate them is dead to poetry.'
The Dublin Evening Mail, July 13, 188;.
'Thus gracefully does Mrs. Piatt embroider her humble theme. In tenui labor, one may say of her, at tenuis non gloria to have written such lines. . . . Mrs. Piatt may have written these poems for children, but we should think poorly of the taste of the adult who did not appreciate their high poetic quality.'
The Nation (Dublin), July 16, 1887.
'There are just ten pieces in Mrs. Piatt's latest little volume, and if we were to quote all the exquisite poetry contained in it, we would quote the whole ten. That would be piracy, and yet if we were ever tempted to break for the benefit of our readers that literary commandment which says, "Thou shalt not steal," it is on the present occasion. The next est thing we can do for our friends is to advise them to go and procure the little book at once. The ten small poems are ten gems.'
The Cork Constitution, July 13, 1887.
