The Age Reviewed A Satire: In two parts: Second edition, revised and corrected [by Robert Montgomery] |
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 | The Age Reviewed |  |
So great a pirate as to steal a name!
Though growling parents ask, from whence it flows?
A Della Crusca with pathetic gloss,
He kneads a poem from sententious dross;
Expert as mime,—too barren to create,
The broider'd Muse comes flouncing from his pate;
Sometimes she bounds to barber-shops above,
And plucks a grey lock to inspire his love;
Then, fondly gazing—lo! the poet sighs,
Till tear-floods wash his sentimental eyes.
Mr. W---, considering his own Christian name somewhat anti-poetical, assumed that of Alaric; in reference, I imagine, to the similarity of his disposition with that of the Goth. His “Poetical Sketches” were eminently befriended by means of purchased puffs, Grub-Street alliances, and the usual resources of literary hacks. Mr. Secretary Peel is, it seems, a sort of Mæcenas to this gentleman; and some of his “Lyrics of the Heart” are sleeping quietly in Mr. Peel's Album. Mr. W---'s character for poetical envy, jealousy, and sly subterfuge, is so notorious both among friends and foes, that for the present we must say, vale. His Grey Haired stanzas, above alluded to, are little else but artificial whine; scarcely dignified enough to dedicate to a hair pulled from a pig's tail.
| The Age Reviewed | |