144 



POETRY AXD POETS 



He then, as an instance of real po- 

 pularity, mentioned that, happening 

 to enter a blacksmith's forge on 

 some trifling errand many years 

 ago, he saw a small volume lying 

 on the bench, but sobegrimmed and 

 tattered, that its title-page was 

 almost illegible. It was Goldsmith's 

 -Deserted Village and other Poems ; 

 every page of which bore testimony 

 to the rough hands guided by feel- 

 ing hearts that had so of ten turned 

 over its leaves. " This," he added, 

 ' ; was one of the most convincing 

 instances of an author's popularity 

 I ever met with." 



BOWLES. 



The canon's absence of mind was 

 very great, and when his coachman 

 drove him into Bath, he had to 

 practise all kinds of cautions to 

 keep him to time and place. The 

 act of composition was a slow and 

 labor! ous operation with Mr. Bo wles. 

 He altered and re-wrote his MS., 

 until, sometimes, hardly anything 

 remained of the original, excepting 

 the general conception. When we 

 add that his handwriting was one 

 of the worst that ever man wrote 

 insomuch that frequently he 

 could not read that which he had 

 written the day before we need 

 not say that his printers had very 

 tough work in getting his works 

 into type. At the time when we 

 printed for Mr. Bowles, we had one 

 compositor who had a sort of knack 

 in making out the poet's hierogly- 

 phics, and he was once actually sent 

 for by Mr. Bowles into Wiltshire 

 to copy some MS. written a year or 

 two before, which the poet had 

 himself vainly endeavoured to de- 

 cipher. (Newspaper.) 



COWPER'S " TASK." 

 Cowper, like many other men of 

 eminence, was often indebted to 

 others for the subjects on which he 

 wrote. Lady Austen was very 

 fond of blank verse, and urged her 



Mend to try his powers in that 

 species of composition. At length 

 he promised to do so if she would 

 furnish him with a subject. She 

 replied, ' ; O you can never be in 

 want of a subject: you can AM-UO 

 upon any : write upon this sofa." 

 The poet obeyed her command, and 

 produced the Task. 



This poem, which thus arose 

 from the lively repartee of familiar 

 conversation, presents a variety in- 

 cluding almost every subject and 

 every style, without the violation 

 of order and harmony, while it 

 breathes a spirit of the purest and 

 most exalted morality. 



Thomas Campbell finely re- 

 marks, that " his whimsical outset 

 in a work, where he promises so 

 little and performs so much, may 

 be advantageously contrasted with 

 those magnificent commencements 

 of poems which pledge both the 

 reader and the writer, in good 

 earnest, to a task. Cowper's poem, 

 on the contrary, is like a river, 

 which rises from a playful little 

 fountain, and which gathers beauty 

 and magnitude as it proceeds." 



" PARADISE LOST." 



When this great production ap- 

 peared, in 1667, the celebrated 

 Waller wrote of it "The old, 

 blind schoolmaster, John Milton, 

 hath published a tedious poem on 

 the fall of man; if its length be 

 not considered a merit, it has no 

 other." 



Thomas EUwood, an intelligent 

 and learned Quaker, who was hon- 

 oured by the intimate friendship of 

 Milton, used to read to him various 

 authors in the learned languages, 

 and thus contributed as well to his 

 own improvement as to solace the 

 dark hours of the poet when he had 

 lost his sight. 



" The curious ear of John Milton," 

 said Ellwood,inhis own Life, "could 

 discover, by the tone of my voice, 

 when I did not clearly understand 



