drinking-song, for him I have not written. Intelligibilia, non intellectum adfero. I expect neither profit nor general fame by my writings; and I consider myself as having been amply repaid without either. Poetry has been to me its own "exceeding great reward:" it has soothed my afflic tions; it has multiplied and refined my enjoyments; it has endeared solitude; and it has given me the habit of wishing to discover the Good and the Beautiful in all that meets and surrounds me.* S. T. C. *The above Preface was prefixed by the author to the third edition of the Juvenile Poems, in 1803, and transferred by him without alteration to the collected edition of his poetical works in 1828. It is made up from the Prefaces to the first two editions of his Poems, and referred, in the first instance, to the earlier productions of his Muse. In the Preface to the Sibylline Leaves, which he did not reprint, he states that that collection was 'presented to the reader as perfect as the author's skill and powers could render them;" adding, that "henceforward he must be occupied by studies of a very different kind." The motto which appears on a subsequent page is taken from the same place, and points to a similar conclusion. D Page THOUGH ROUSED BY THAT DARK VIZIR RIOT RUDE WHEN BRITISH FREEDOM FOR A HAPPIER LAND SONNET VI. IT WAS SOME SPIRIT, SHERIDAN! THAT BREATHED SONNET VII. O WHAT A LOUD AND FEARFUL SHRIEK WAS THERE SONNET VIII. AS WHEN FAR OFF THE WARBLED STRAINS ARE HEARD SONNET IX. NOT STANHOPE! WITH THE PATRIOT'S DOUBTFUL NAME 45 SONNET X. THOU GENTLE LOOK, THAT DIDST MY SOUL BEGUILE . TO THE AUTHOR OF POEMS PUBLISHED ANONYMOUSLY AT BRISTOL 52 LINES WRITTEN AT SHURTON BAKS, Near bridgeWATER |