PREFACE.
Some of the poems contained in the present collection were written at an early age. Others interspersed themselves, at later periods, amid domestic occupations or maternal cares. The greater part were suggested by passing occasions, and partake of the nature of extemporaneous productions. All reveal, by their brevity, the narrow intervals of time which were devoted to their composition.
They have sprung up like wild flowers in the dells, or among the clefts of the rock; wherever the path of life has chanced to lead. The hand that gathered and now presents them, borrows for their motto the sweetly eloquent words of Coleridge:
"I expect from them neither profit nor general fame; and I consider myself amply repaid without either. Poetry has been to me its own exceeding
