With perfect ease can stir.
She wears “divided skirts,” and oh!
The difference to her!!
F. B. Doveton.
——:o:——
THE REJECTED ADDRESSES.
Wordsworth was one of the authors selected to be imitated in The Rejected Addresses. These were supposed to be the compositions sent in by competing poets on the occasion of the opening of the new Drury Lane Theatre in October, 1812. They were all written by the Brothers James and Horace Smith, this imitation of Wordsworth being the work of James Smith.
The Edinburgh Review for November, 1812, contained an article (written by Jeffrey) on The Rejected Addresses, in which, referring to this particular poem, the reviewer remarks:—“The author does not attempt to copy any of the higher attributes of Mr. Wordsworth’s poetry; but has succeeded perfectly in the imitation of his mawkish affectations of childish simplicity and nursery stammering. We hope it will make him ashamed of his ‘Alice Fell,’ and the greater part of his last volumes—of which it is by no means a parody, but a very fair, and indeed we think a flattering imitation.”
The Baby’s Debut.
“Thy lisping prattle and thy mincing gait,