The Poems of Winthrop Mackworth Praed With a Memoir by the Rev. Derwent Coleridge. Fourth Edition. In Two Volumes |
I. |
II. |
I. |
II. |
The Poems of Winthrop Mackworth Praed | ||
The reader is requested to believe that the following statement is literally true; because the writer is well aware that the circumstances under which Lillian was composed are the only source of its merits, and the only apology for its faults.
At a small party at Cambridge some malicious belles endeavoured
to confound their sonnetteering friends, by setting
unintelligible and inexplicable subjects for the exercise of
their poetical talents. Among many others, the thesis was
given out which is the motto of Lillian—
A headless maiden's heart,”
The partiality with which it has been honoured in manuscript, and the frequent applications which have been made to the author for copies, must be his excuse for sending it to the press.
It was written, however, with the sole view of amusing the friends in whose circle the idea originated; and to them, with all due humility and devotion, it is inscribed.
The Poems of Winthrop Mackworth Praed | ||