And stands a witness at Truth's awful bar, Oh place me in some heaven-protected isle, THE POET, THE OYSTER, AN Oyster, cast upon the shore, 66 'Ah, hapless wretch ! condemned to For ever in my native shell; The plant he meant grew not far off, ("When," cry the botanists, and stare, "Did plants called Sensitive grow there?" No matter when-a poet's muse is To make them grow just where she chooses.) "You shapeless nothing in a dish! AND SENSITIVE PLANT. And when I bend, retire, and shrink, Says 'Well, 'tis more than one would think!' Thus life is spent (oh fie upon't!) A poet, in his evening walk, O'erheard and checked this idle talk. "And your fine sense," he said, “and yours, Whatever evil it endures, Deserves not, if so soon offended, You, in your grotto-work enclosed, And as for you, my Lady Squeamish, You would not feel at all, not you. His censure reached them as he dealt it. And each by shrinking showed he felt it. 179 TO THE REV. WILLIAM CAWTHORNE UNWIN. UNWIN, I should but ill repay The kindness of a friend, A union formed, as mine with thee, The bud inserted in the rind, Lest this should prove the last. 'Tis where it should be-in a plan That holds in view the good of man. The poet's lyre, to fix his fame, Should be the poet's heart; An EPISTLE to JOSEPH HILL, Esq. TIROCINIUM, or a REVIEW OF SCHOOLS, and the HISTORY of JOHN GILPIN. LONDON: PRINTED FOR J. JOHNSON, No 72, ST. PAUL'S CHURCH-YARD : 1785. [Copy of the title-page of Cowper's second publication.] ADVERTISEMENT. THE history of the following production is briefly this: A lady, fond of blank verse, demanded a poem of that kind from the author, and gave him the SOFA for a subject. He obeyed; and, having much leisure, connected another subject with it; and, pursuing the train of thought to which his situation and turn of mind led him, brought forth at length, instead of the trifle which he at first intended, a serious affair-a Volume. In the poem on the subject of Education, he would be very sorry to stand suspected of having aimed his censure at any particular school. His objections are such as naturally apply themselves to schools in general. If there were not, as for the most part there is, wilful neglect in those who manage them, and an omission even of such discipline as they are susceptible of, the objects are yet too numerous for minute attention; and the aching hearts of ten thousand parents, mourning under the bitterest of all disappointments, attest the truth of the allegation. His quarrel, therefore, is with the mischief at large, and not with any particular instance of it. |