The Works of Thomas Hood; Vol. 01 (of 11): Comic and Serious, in Prose and Verse, With All the Original IllustrationsHood, Thomas
General
The Works of Thomas Hood; Vol. 01 (of 11): Comic and Serious, in Prose and Verse, With All the Original Illustrations
Hood, Thomas
English poetry -- 19th century; English wit and humor; Humorous poetry, English
Remain Sur,
Your humbel tu command,
JACOB GILES.
P.S. Think Vallintins day wood be a Good fixter for next Fancy
Fare. Shan’t say why. Sniff sumthing of the kind going on amung
our hone Gals--Polly as just begd a sak of bran and she dont keap
rabits. Pincushins and nothin else. Tother day cum across a large
Watchpokit and suspect Mrs. G is at the Bottom of it. No churnin
butter, no packin egs, no setten Hens and crammin Turkis--All
sniping ribbins folding papper sowin up satten and splitting hole
trusses of straw. Am blest if its for litterin down Horsis. Dont no
how its all to be got to markit at Lonnon, the nine Gals and all
’xcept its by a Pickfurd Van.
[Illustration: HUNGERFORD MARKET.]
POEMS BY A POOR GENTLEMAN.
There, in a lonely room, from bailiffs snug,
The Muse found Scroggins stretched beneath a rug.--GOLDSMITH.
Poetry and poverty begin with the same letter, and in more respects
than one, are “as like each other as two P’s.”--Nine tailors are
the making of a man, but not so the nine Muses. Their votaries are
notoriously only water drinkers, eating mutton cold, and dwelling in
attics. Look at the miserable lives and deaths recorded of the poets.
“Butler,” says Mr. D’Israeli, “lived in a cellar, and Goldsmith in
a Deserted Village. Savage ran wild,--Chatterton was carried on St.
Augustine’s Back like a young gipsy; and his half-starved _Rowley_
always said Heigho, when he heard of gammon and spinach. Gray’s day’s
were ode-ious, and Gay’s gaiety was fabulous. Falconer was shipwrecked.
Homer was a blind beggar, and Pope raised a subscription for him, and
went snacks. Crabbe found himself in the poor-house, Spenser couldn’t
afford a great-coat, and Milton was led up and down by his daughters to
save the expense of a dog.”
It seems all but impossible to be a poet, in easy circumstances.
Pope has shown how verses are written by Ladies of Quality--and what
execrable rhymes Sir Richard Blackmore composed in his chariot; in a
hay-cart he might have sung like a Burns.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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