compositions

and so fortunately aspired to choose your honour, joined with your (now

glorified) brother, (patrons to the flowing compositions of the tiien expired

sweet swan of Avon Shakspeare'; and since, more particularly bound to

His dramatic compositions arc very numerous, and

are here set down according to the times in which

The poem of Waller on Cromwell's death, excepting one unhappy and

celebrated instance of the bathos,[8] is the best of his compositions;

and, separately considered, must be allowed to be superior to that of

For the historical foundation of the following compositions the reader

is referred to the Notes.

written in 1818, The Witch of Atlas, 1820, The

Triumph of Life, 1822, and many other compositions

and translations.

written neither for profit nor for fame: I have employed my poetical

compositions and publications simply as the instruments of that sympathy

between myself and others which the ardent and unbounded love I

were written in the notes; and need only add that they are conceived

in a very different spirit from Shelley’s usual compositions. They are

specimens of the burlesque and fanciful; but, although they adopt a

no man could draw from it any suspicion of his excellence in poetry, may

be applied to these compositions. No author ever kept his verse and his

prose at a greater distance from each other. His thoughts are natural,