The Poet's Poet : essays on the character and mission of the poet as interpreted in English verse of the last one hundred and fifty years

by Elizabeth Atkins

Self-reading, not self-loving, they are twain,
[Footnote: Henry Timrod, A Vision of Poesy.]

telling him,

Think not of thine own self,
[Footnote: Richard Gilder, To the Poet.]

adding,

Always, O bard, humility is power.
[Footnote: Henry Timrod, Poet If on a Lasting Fame.]

One is reminded of Mrs. Heep's repeated adjuration, "Be 'umble, Ury," and the likeness is not lessened when we find them ingratiatingly sidling themselves into public favor. We hear them timidly inquiring of their inspiration,

Shall not the violet bloom?
[Footnote: Mrs. Evans, Apologetic.]

and pleading with their critics,

Lightly, kindly deal,
My buds were culled amid bright dews
In morn of earliest youth.
[Footnote: Lydia M. Reno, Preface to Early Buds.]

At times they resort to the mixed metaphor to express their innocuous unimportance, declaring,