"'My first dear love, all dearer for thy grief!
My land that has no peer in all the sea
For verdure, vale, or river, flower or leaf,—
If first to no man else, thou'rt first to me.
New loves may come with duties, but the first
Is deepest yet,—the mother's breath and smiles :
Like that kind face and breast where I was nursed
Is my poor land, the Niobe of Isles.'"
Mr. R. H. Stoddard, in Scribner'a Monthly,
"'The King of the Vasse,' the opening poem in Mr. O'Reilly's volume, is a remarkable one; and if the legend be the creation of Mr. 0'Reilly, it places him high among the few really imaginative poets. . . . This, in brief, is the outline of the 'King of the Vasse.' In it we could point out many faulty lines. William Morris could have spun off the verse more fluently, and Longfellow could have imparted to it his usual grace. Still, we are glad it is not from them, but from Mr. O'Reilly that we receive it. The story is simply and strongly told, and is imaginative and pathetic. It is certainly the most poetic poem in the volume, though by no means the most striking one. 'The Amber Whale' is more characteristic of Mr. O'Reilly's genius, as 'The Dog Guard' and 'The Duklte Snake' are more characteristic of the region in which he is most at home He is as good a balladist as Walter Thornbury, who is the only other living poet who could have written 'The Old Dragoon's Story.' "
Boston Gazette.
"'This is a volume of admirable poetry. The more ambitious poems in the book are in narrative form, and are terse and spirited in style, and full of dramatic power and effect. Mr. O'Reilly is both picturesque and epigrammatic, and writes with a manly straightforwardness that is very attractive. ... Of the sickly sentimentality that forms the groundwork of so much of our modern poetry, not a trace is to be found in this book. The tone throughout is healthy, earnest and pure. There is also an independence and originality of thought and treatment
