 | Idle Moments : |  |
PREFACE.
A serious injustice is done an author when his friends and enemies fail to read his preface. I trust that my friends may at least do me the justice to read why I venture to send these poems forth to the public.
To attempt to write poetry is very generally considered an indisputable evidence of a mild form of insanity, and yet I presume to trust that such is not my case.
No man should trust himself before the public unless he has written something that the public ought to hear, or something that the public wants to hear, and he himself should not constitute that public.
As to the first, I dare not say; as to the second, many have so expressed themselves.
But even with the fear of public criticism, and possibly public censure, I commit myself to its tender mercies.
So many have asked for copies of “Emancipation” and other of my poems; the public press has spoken so kindly of them, that I indulge the hope that they may meet some favor.
Perhaps some line may cheer and help a struggling brother, or bring some light and gladness into a stricken heart; but anyway, no line can bring ought but pleasure, as I believe a deep sense of the good, the beautiful and the true can be found on every page. Should the rhyme, the meter or the lines offend they at least are written from the heart.
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