POEMS: containing THE RETROSPECT, ODES, ELEGIES, SONNETS, &c.

BY ROBERT LOVELL, AND ROBERT SOUTHEY, OF BALIOL COLLEGE, OXFORD.

.......... "Minuentur atræ Carmine curæ."HOR.

BATH, PRINTED BY R. CRUTTWELL, AND SOLD BY C. DILLY, POULTRY, LONDON.

MDCCXCV.

CONTENTS.

[Pg vii]PREFACE.

A quaint Author of the year 1633, in his pithy Proeme to a book, entituled

THE PHILOSOPHERS BANQVET,

Newly Furnished and decked forth with much variety of many severall dishes,

aptly sayeth

"To the Iuditious Reader, "Him that will buy this Booke; thus in the commendation and use thereof. "Good Reader, many things hath beene written by many men, and the over-cloying humor of this age hath so overburdened the world with multiplicity of al kinds, that scarce there is one subject left upon the head whereof a hundred have not trampled over: amongst which impartial handling, it may bee[Pg viii] possible that some one corner hath escaped this scrutenous search, and beene raked over with a lighter hand than other."

We feel the justice of this remark as applicable to modern poetry. Much novelty cannot be expected. In submitting the following volume to the public, we attempt neither to prejudice them in its favour, or supplicate them in behalf of its faults.

The signature of Bion distinguishes the pieces of R. Southey;—Moschus, R. Lovell.

[Pg 1] THE RETROSPECT.

BOWLES.

BION.

[Pg 17]ROMANCE.

BION.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Fictions of Romance, popular in Scandinavia at an early period.

[2] Heliodorus chose rather to be deprived of his see than burn his Ethiopics. The bishop's name would have slept with his fathers, the romancer is remembered.

[3] First exploit of the celebrated Regner Lodbrog.

[4] Knights of the round table.

[5] The Paladines of France.

[6] Instead of forging the life of a saint, Archbishop Turpin was better employed in falsifying the history of Charlemagne.

[7] A bull was issued, commanding all good citizens to believe Ariosto's poem, founded upon Turpin's history.

[8] Arabian fictions ingrafted on the Gothic romance.

[9] Romance of the Rose, written soon after the Crusades.

[10] Early prose Romances, originally Spanish.

[11] Fictions of Romance, allegorized by Spenser.

[Pg 27]TO URBAN.

BION.

[Pg 31]THE MISER'S MANSION.

BION.

[Pg 35]ELEGY. THE DECAYED FARM-HOUSE.

EPITAPH.

MOSCHUS.

[Pg 41]ELEGY. THE DECAYED MONASTERY.

MOSCHUS.