vi with patience. Should it be favourable, the present volume will shortly be followed by another, in which, if no more be accomplished, a higher strain is certainly attempted. As there is nothing peculiar either in the principles upon which these poems are written, or the circumstances under which they were produced, further preface would be superfluous. Wherever I have been conscious of adopting the thoughts or words of former, especially of living writers, I have scrupulously acknowledged the obligation: but I am well aware that there may be several instances of such adoption which have escaped my observation. It is not always easy to distinguish between recollection and invention. At the same time, be it remembered, that close resemblance of phrase or illustration, or even verbal identity, may arise from casual coincidence, in compositions that owe nothing to each other. Leeds, January, 1833. SONNETS. SONNET I. TO A FRIEND. WHEN We were idlers with the loitering rills, Of that sweet music which no ear can measure; And now the streams may sing for others' pleasure, The hills sleep on in their eternity. B SONNET II. TO THE SAME. In the great city we are met again, Where many souls there are, that breathe and die, Than what they learn from heat, or cold, or rain, For busy man is lord of ear and eye, And what hath nature, but the vast, void sky, |