 | Uncollected Poems of James Russell Lowell |  |
PREFACE
Many of my readers, and all my friends know that it was not by any desire of mine that this rather slim production is printed. Circumstances, known to all my readers, and which I need not dilate on here, considerably cooled my interest in the performance. Many of the lines, though in fact they would even then be indifferent good, I should prefer if possible to see in prose. Sed Dis aliter. Many were written merely as rough draughts, which I intended to have altered and revised, but the change of feeling, mentioned above, has prevented, and rough draughts they are still. There are a few grains of gold, or at least tinsel, in the composition, but the lead—oh word infaust to poets!—will I fear, far outweigh them. A few passages have been omitted, whose place is sufficiently well supplied by asterisks.
Paltry, however, as it is, I submit it (at their desire) to my readers, confident
“That never anything can be amiss,When simpleness and duty tender it.”
| Uncollected Poems of James Russell Lowell | |