SOURCE: "Review of Some Poems by Alexander Smith and Matthew Arnold," in Prose Remains of Arthur Hugh Clough, edited by Mrs. Clough, Macmillan and Co., 1888, pp. 355-78.

Clough was an author, poet, and critic who wrote in both England and America during the late nineteenth century. Letters to his fiancé show that Clough originally liked Smith's work, especially A Life Drama, but lost enthusiasm for it before his first review of Smith was printed. The following excerpt is from a joint review of Matthew Arnold's and Smith's works, originally published in the North American Review, July, 1853. In it, Clough contends that despite "imperfections of style and taste," Smith's Poems is better than the average poet's first volume.

Poems by Alexander Smith, a volume recently published in London, and by this time reprinted in Boston, deserve attention. They have obtained in England a good deal more notice than is...