Of all the expressions of admiration, affection, pleasure, called forth by a professional artist, of all the forms or signals of fame, perhaps none is more flattering or more delightful to the recipient than the tributary verses evoked from souls endowed with the poetic faculty. As such natures are finer and higher than others, their homage is proportionally more precious. During his life more than fifty poems addressed to Forrest were published, and gave him a great deal of pure pleasure. A few specimens of these offerings may properly find a place here.
The following lines felicitously copied were thrown upon the stage to him one evening in a bouquet:
TO EDWIN FORREST.
When Time hath often turned his glass,
And Memory scans the stage,
Foremost shall then thy image pass,
The Roscius of this age.
The succeeding piece was written in 1828:
TO EDWIN FORREST.
Young heir of glory, Nature’s bold and favorite child,