Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Charles Bidwell and Distributed Proofreaders [Illustration] THE FARMER'S BOY; A RURAL POEM. By ROBERT BLOOMFIELD. "A SHEPHERD'S BOY ... HE SEEKS NO BETTER NAME." The Third Edition LONDON: Printed for Vernor and Hood, Poultry and sold by T.C. Rickman, 7, Upper Mary-Le-Bone-Street; Ingram, and Dingle, Bury; Booth, Norwich; Hill, Edinburgh; Archer, and Dugdale, Dublin. MDCCC A sonnet has come to my hands, the production,--and nearly the first poetical Production,--of a very young Lady. I have not the Author's consent to publish it: and there is no time to ask it. But I cannot omit adding such a flower to the Wreath of Glory of my Friend. I have therefore ventured to publish it without waiting permission; with one or two slight alterations. C. L. 25 Aug. 1800. TO THE AUTHOR OF THE FARMER'S BOY. I. _If wealth, if honour, at command were mine, And every boast Ambition could desire, The pompous Gifts, sweet Bard, I would resign For the aft Music of thy tuneful Lyre,_ II. _Which speaks the soul awake to every charm That Nature open'd from thy humble cot: Speaks powers chill Indigence could not disarm; Proof to Humanity's severest lot._ III. _Thou Friend to Nature, and of Man the Friend; Of every generous and benignant cause; The accents of thy glowing worth, unfeign'd, Live in the cadence of each feeling pause. Here thought, alternate, in the noble Plan Admires the POET, and reveres the Man._ 25 Aug. 1800. PREFACE Having the satisfaction of introducing to the Public this very pleasing and characteristic POEM, the FARMER'S BOY, I think it will be agreeable to preface it with a short Account of the manner in which it came into my hands: and, which will be much more interesting to every Reader, a little History of the Author, which has been communicated to me by his Brother, and which I shall very nearly transcribe as it lies before me. In _November_ last year [Footnote: This was written in 1799.] I receiv'd a MS. which I was requested to read, and to give my opinion of it. It had before been shewn to some persons in _London_: whose indifference toward it may probably be explain'd when it is consider'd that it came to their hands under no circumstances of adventitious recommendation. With some a person must be rich, or titled, or fashionable as a literary name, or at least fashionable in some respect, good or bad, before any thing which he can offer will be thought worthy of notice. I had been a little accustom'd to the effect of prejudices: and I was determin'd to judge, in the only just and reasonable way, of the Work, by the Work itself.