HARVARD 17 OCT 1995 Friss Sarry Facia Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1859, by In the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Southern District of New York. STEREOTYPED AND PRINTED BY No. 26 FRANKFORT STREET. PREFACE TO THE POEMS. THESE trifles are collected and republished chiefly with a view to their redemption from the many improvements to which they have been subjected while going at random "the rounds of the press." I am naturally anxious that what I have written should circulate as I wrote it, if it circulate at all. In defence of my own taste, nevertheless, it is incumbent upon me to say that I think nothing in this volume of much value to the public, or very creditable to myself. Events not to be controlled have prevented me from making at any time any serious effort in what, under happier circumstances, would have been the field of my choice. With me poetry has been not a purpose, but a passion; and the passions should be held in reverence; they must notthey cannot at will be excited, with an eye to the paltry compensations, or the more paltry commendations of mankind. E. A. P. (3) |