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PRINTED BY SAMUEL MANNING AND CO., LONDON-HOUSE YARD, ST. PAUL'S.

ΤΟ

MRS. HEMANS,

THIS VOLUME,

CONTAINING SEVERAL OF THE MOST SUCCESSFUL PRODUCTIONS OF HER OWN DISTINGUISHED PEN,

Es Enscribed,

AS A MARK OF ESTEEM FOR HER CHARACTER, AND ADMIRATION OF HER GENIUS,

BY HER OBLIGED FRIEND,

THE EDITOR.

PREFACE.

THE present Volume, which is intended to complete the POETICAL ALBUM, will not, it is hoped, be found inferior, in the interest and variety of its contents, to its predecessor; the success of which has been greater than could have been anticipated, considering how many books of the same class have made their appearance during the last few years.

In collecting into one focus a large body of Poetry, extracted, for the most part, from sources of a temporary or fugitive character, the Editor desires to assume no other merit than that of having diligently examined a great number of works, and extracted from them such productions as seemed best calculated to exhibit the description of poetical talent by which they are distinguished, or as appeared worthy of being circulated in a more permanent form than that of a Newspaper or a Magazine. In pursuance of this object, however,

in

care has been taken to refer every Poem, the source of which could be ascertained, to its proper origin; a duty which would seem to have been studiously neglected by the Editors of all similar publications. Many Poems, which have excited little or no attention in the pages which they were originally published, are here re-printed in a collected form; and, whilst they will satisfy the poetical reader of the wealth of the various sources from which they have been derived, will present him with a concentration of their sweets, in a more popular and portable form.

In many instances the pages of Periodicals long since discontinued, or of books comparatively neglected or unknown, have been laid under contribution. Several unpublished Poems have also been interspersed throughout the work; and if the Editor has superadded a few of his own vers de societé, he has been actuated less by any undue notion of their value, than by a desire to satisfy his readers that he knows enough of the "gentle craft" to enable him to appreciate the merits of those writers of whose productions he has availed himself.

It may be proper to add, that some of the Poems in the present Volume have been re-published by their Authors, in their collected works; in such cases, however, reference has been made to the Journals in which they first appeared.

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