I have collected in this Volume the productions of very distant periods. The lyric pieces were written in earlier youth; I now think the Ode the most worthless species of composition as well as the most difficult, and should never again attempt it, even if my future pursuits were such as allowed leisure for poetry. The poems addressed to the heart and the understanding are those of my maturer judgment. The Inscriptions will be found to differ from the Greek simplicity of Akenside's in the point that generally concludes them. The Sonnets were written first, or I would have adopted a different title, and avoided the shackle of rhyme and the confinement to fourteen lines.
CONTENTS
To Mary Wollstonecraft …………. 3
The Triumph of Woman …………… 7
Poems on the Slave-Trade ………. 29
Sonnet 1 …………………….. 33
2 …………………….. 34
3 …………………….. 35
4 …………………….. 36
5 …………………….. 37
6 …………………….. 38
To the Genius of Africa ……….. 39
To my own Miniature Picture ……. 44
The Pauper's Funeral ………….. 47
Ode written on 1st of January ….. 49
Inscription 1 ………………… 55
2 ………………… 56
3 ………………… 57
4 ………………… 59
5 ………………… 61
6 ………………… 62
7 ………………… 63
8 ………………… 64
Birth-Day Ode ………………… 67
Birth-Day Ode ………………… 71
Botany-bay Eclogues …………… 75
Elinor ………………………. 77
Humphrey and William ………….. 83
John, Samuel, and Richard ……… 92
Frederic …………………….. 99
Sonnet 1 ……………………. 107
2 ……………………. 108
3 ……………………. 109
4 ……………………. 110
5 ……………………. 111
6 ……………………. 112
7 ……………………. 113
8 ……………………. 114
9 ……………………. 115
10 ……………………. 116
Sappho ……………………… 121
Ode written on 1st. Dece. …….. 126
Written on Sunday Morning …….. 129
On the death of a favorite
old Spaniel ……………….. 132
To Contemplation …………….. 135
To Horror …………………… 140
The Soldier's Wife …………… 145
The Widow …………………… 147
The Chapel Bell ……………… 149
The Race of Banquo …………… 152
Musings on a landscape of
Caspar Poussin …………….. 154
Mary ……………………….. 163
Donica ……………………… 175
Rudiger …………………….. 187
Hymn to the Penates ………….. 203
ERRORS
p.151 - in the last line but one, for nosal, read nasal. p.192 - line 8, for wild, read mild. p. 203 - in the note, for Complicces, read Complices.
THE TRIUMPH OF WOMAN
[Greek (transliterated):
Ou gar thaeluierais demas opasen aemiielesion
Morphaen, ophra xai allaperi chroi technaesainio.
NATMACHIOS.]
TO MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT.
The lilly cheek, the "purple light of love,"
The liquid lustre of the melting eye,—
Mary! of these the Poet sung, for these
Did Woman triumph! with no angry frown
View this degrading conquest. At that age
No MAID OF ARC had snatch'd from coward man
The heaven-blest sword of Liberty; thy sex
Could boast no female ROLAND'S martyrdom;
No CORDE'S angel and avenging arm
Had sanctified again the Murderer's name
As erst when Caesar perish'd: yet some strains
May even adorn this theme, befitting me
To offer, nor unworthy thy regard.