——:o:——
Of all the amusing poems in The Rejected Addresses perhaps the only one which can be truly styled a parody is The Rebuilding, which closely mimics the Funeral of Arvalan in Southey’s Curse of Kehama. Not only is the metre closely followed, but James Smith, the author of this particular “Address,” has shown great ingenuity in bringing in the same characters as Southey has introduced into his poem. Lord Jeffrey, writing in The Edinburgh Review, said, “The Rebuilding is in the name of Mr. Southey, and is one of the best in the collection. It is in the style of the Kehama of that multifarious author, and is supposed to be spoken in the character of one of his Glendoveers. The imitation of the diction and measure, is nearly perfect; and the descriptions are as good as the original.” It may here be mentioned that Southey borrowed his description of the Glendoveers from the “Life and Adventures of Peter Wilkins,” published in London, in 1751.
The Rebuilding.
——“Per audaces nova dithyrambos
Verba devolvit, numerisque fertur
Lege solutis.” Horat.
[Spoken by a Glendoveer.]
I am a blessed Glendoveer;[52]
’Tis mine to speak, and yours to hear.
Midnight, yet not a nose