Mr. Frederick Locker-Lampson, author of London Lyrics, has in his possession the first draft of William Cowper’s poem of The Rose, in the poet’s autograph. It is interesting, as it shows how much he altered and improved his poems:—
“The Rose that I sing had been bathed in a show’r,
Profusely and hastily shed,
The plentiful moisture incumber’d the flow’r,
And weigh’d down its elegant head.
The cup was all fill’d, and the leaves were all wet,
And it seem’d to a fanciful view
To weep for the home it had left with regret
In the flowery bush where it grew.
Unfit as it was for the use of the Fair,