wii^son's wterary writings 137 



ered around the foaming bowl, and it has all the 

 gay spirit of the occasion. 



The originals of the six pictures which he 

 sketched are somewhat doubtful, except the one 

 of himself beginning 



"Here Wilson and Poverty sits 

 Perpetually boxing together." 



So closely does he identify himself with poverty 

 that a single verb answers for both. The song is 

 interesting chiefly as throwing a strong light on 

 those early days of his chequered life. 



The descriptive pieces comprise a large num- 

 ber of character-sketches, stanzas on ''Morning" 

 and "Evening" and other similar subjects. They 

 maintain a common level of mediocre verse, and 

 there is not one among them that seems more 

 deserving of particular attention than the rest. 

 Nor shall we be greatly repaid by a study of the 

 remaining pieces which do not come under the 

 above groupings. Among these are several trivial 

 elegies, a few pointless epigrams, some addresses 

 of no great merit, and an unfinished poem on 

 ''Hardyknute." 



The most, then, that we can claim for this first 

 collection of poems which Wilson printed is that 

 there were one or two pieces which gave mild 

 promise of something better to come; it would 

 have been far safer for his claims as a verse-writer 

 if these early attempts of his youth had been al- 

 lowed to slumber on forgotten. Wilson himself 

 realized later the weakness of many of them, and 

 when he published another edition in 1791 he 



