Sepulchral Grahame,[1] pours his notes sublime
In mangled prose, nor e'en aspires to rhyme;
Breaks into blank the Gospel of St. Luke,[2]
And boldly pilfers from the Pentateuch;
And, undisturbed by conscientious qualms,
Perverts the Prophets, and purloins the Psalms.
Hail, Sympathy! thy soft idea brings[3]
A thousand visions of a thousand things,
And shows, still whimpering through threescore of years,[4]
The maudlin prince of mournful sonneteers.330
And art thou not their prince, harmonious Bowles![5]
- ↑ Mr. Grahame has poured forth two volumes of Cant, under the name of Sabbath Walks and Biblical Pictures. [James Grahame (1765-1811), a lawyer, who subsequently took Holy Orders. The Sabbath, a poem, was published anonymously in 1804; and to a second edition were added Sabbath Walks. Biblical Pictures appeared in 1807.]
- ↑ Breaks into mawkish lines each holy Book.—[MS. First Edition.]
- ↑ Thy "Sympathy" that.—[British Bards.]
- ↑
And shows dissolved in sympathetic tears.—
—— in thine own melting tears.—[MS. First to Fourth Editions.] - ↑ [The Rev. W. Lisle Bowles (1768-1850). His edition of Pope's Works, in ten vols., which stirred Byron's gall, appeared in 1807. The Fall of Empires, Tyre, Carthage,
has written as much, to as little purpose, as any of his scribbling contemporaries. Mr. P.'s Sympathy is in rhyme; but his prose productions are the most voluminous."
Samuel Jackson Pratt (1749-1814), actor, itinerant lecturer, poet of the Cruscan school, tragedian, and novelist, published a large number of volumes. His Gleanings in England, Holland, Wales, and Westphalia attained some reputation. His Sympathy; a Poem (1788) passed through several editions. His pseudonym was Courtney Melmoth. He was a patron of the cobbler-poet, Blacket.]
