Poems: Lyrical and Dramatic

Poems: Lyrical And Dramatic by George Francis Armstrong is a collection of verse first issued in 1869 and reissued in 1873 in a new edition by Longmans, Green, Reader, and Dyer. The volume gathers lyrical pieces and dramatic poems that probe religious faith, doubt, love, sorrow, and moral striving, often couched in ardent, impassioned language. Prefixed by a note from the author about revisions—withdrawals of certain poems and additions to harmonize older moods—the book showcases sequences such as Jesus Hominum Salvator and Through the Solitudes, elegiac laments like SLAIN IN THE FOREFRONT, and love- and fate-inflected lyrics such as Poet and Mistress and A Parts of the long dramatic fragment Ugone. The contents span dramatic monologue, devotional verse, nature-inspired reflection, and intimate lyricism, including the lengthy tragedy Ugone appended with critical excerpts. Throughout, Armstrong’s verse is marked by fervent energy, spiritual inquiry, and a persistent moral perspective, blending Romantic sensibility with a religious and existential impulse that seeks not only to move the heart but to wrestle with ultimate questions of meaning and faith.