The Author of the following Poems prefixes a “Preface” to them, lest he should seem to be wanting in respect to his readers, did he not comply with a custom which is universal. In doing so, however, he would eschew two kinds of Preface, viz: that in which the author arrogates to himself the merit of having produced a work entirely new, both in subject, and in manner of expression, and on that score claims the plaudits of his friends and the public;—and that in which the author professes to feel himself inadequate to the task of composing a book, but at the pressing solicitation of his friends, with great distrust of his abilities for such a work, he yields to their entreaties, and pleads his inability in mitigation of the critic’s wrath. With respect to the former, the writer of the present volume professes not to offer to his readers any thing new, either as to matter, or to language; and as to the latter, the following pieces were most of them composed several years ago, at distant intervals of time, and were frequently perused by his friends long before he had thoughts of publishing them:—the character of his poetry is therefore pretty well known to those who are likely to become purchasers of his book; and it would be but a bungling apology did he attempt to shelter its defects under the plea of inability for his task.
It will be unnecessary to say much of the subjects sung of in the following poems. Though they are various, the author hopes they will all be found to contain a moral, which, if acted upon in common life, would direct the conduct to a beneficial end. Many of them are founded on facts which occurred in the writer’s neighbourhood, and which he has endeavoured to turn to a useful purpose. Others are of an experimental cast, and are the breathings of the poet’s heart when inflamed by Love Divine! It has been his constant aim to exhibit the workings of grace in the heart, its effects on the life, and the glorious futurity to which it conducts its possessor. For this purpose, he has seized on a variety of incidents known to many of his friends, which have furnished him with matter on which to graft a spiritual thought. Life in its spring tide, or when ebbing in death, home with its simple yet hallowed joys, a religious assembly rapt in devotion and love, a landscape endeared by the associations of youth or of kindred, a dilapidated church, a withering flower, a text of scripture—have supplied him with topics;—and he trusts that the doctrines which he has inculcated in connection with them will always be found to agree with the Word of God.
Of the “Dialect” in which some of the pieces are composed, the author deems it necessary to say a few words. It is well known that every county in England has its peculiarities of expression and pronunciation. These peculiarities, though often unintelligible to persons brought up at a distance, are yet the native language of the common inhabitants; and there is, in their estimation, a point and power in them, which are not to be found in more polished periods. The author has availed himself of the dialect of his native county to convey to a particular class of persons some important truths, which may, perhaps, be more welcomely received because clad in that garb. There may, indeed, appear to delicate ears, a rudeness approaching to barbarism, in the dialect which he has employed; but what is wanting in polish, will, in the estimation of those for whom he writes, be more than compensated by force and vigour. Truth is truth—however humble the habiliments in which it is dressed: nor does it come with less power to the heart because conveyed in language with which those for whom it was intended are familiar. Indeed, there is in that very familiarity something which arrests the attention and affects the heart. Of the correctness of this view, the author has many times seen proof, in the interest with which some of the pieces in the dialect have been listened to, by persons whose education being limited they could not perhaps have appreciated the beauties of polished verse, but were at once arrested and delighted when the artless tale was narrated in their mother tongue. To make this part of the work as complete as possible, great care has been used to render the orthography correct: published specimens of the Dialect have been consulted, as well as living authorities, and no pains have been spared that could contribute to make it complete both to the eye and to the ear. A difference of orthography may occasionally appear, caused by the necessity of making a rhyme;—excepting a few rare instances of this kind, a standard has been adopted which has not been departed from. For the assistance of those who are unacquainted with the dialect of the North Riding of Yorkshire, a copious glossary is appended to the work, by reference to which the meaning of any unknown term or phrase will at once be seen.
The author prays that the blessing of God may accompany his work!
AWD ISAAC.
(PART FIRST.)
Yah neeght as Ah went heeame fra’ wark,
A lahtle bit afoore ’twur dark,
Quite blithe an’ cheerful as a lark,
Ah thowght me-sel;
Ah sat me doon, te rist a bit,
At top o’t’ hill.
Fooaks just wur turnin oot ther ky;—
A lahtle plain awd man com by;—
“Cum set ye doon, gud frind,” sez I,
“An’ rist yer legs;”
He’d beean a bit o’ floor te buy,
An’ twea’r three eggs.
Ah fand him varry fain te stop;—
His staff he set up as a prop;—
His hooary heead he lifted up,
An’ thus compleean’d:—
(Sum fragments ov a gud like feeace,
Ther still remeean’d.)
“Yoo see,” sez he, “mah deear young frind,
Mah travel’s ommost at an end;
Wi’ age mah back begins te bend,
An’ white’s mah hair;
Ov this warld’s griefs, yoo may depend,
Ah’v hed mah share.”