APRIL 1888
SEPTEMBER 1897.
_ADVERTISEMENT_
_My friend and publisher_, _Mr. Alfred Nutt_, _asks me to introduce this
re-issue of old work in a new shape_. _At his request_, _then_, _I have
to say that nearly all the numbers contained in the present volume are
reprinted from_ ‘_A Book of Verses_’ (1888) _and_ ‘_London Voluntaries_’
(1892–3). _From the first of these I have removed some copies of verse
which seemed to me scarce worth keeping_; _and I have recovered for it
certain others from those publications which had made room for them_. _I
have corrected where I could_, _added such dates as I might_, _and_, _by
re-arrangement and revision_, _done my best to give my book_, _such as it
is_, _its final form_. _If any be displeased by the result_, _I can but
submit that my verses are my own_, _and that this is how I would have
them read_.
_The work of revision has reminded me that_, _small as is this book of
mine_, _it is all in the matter of verse that I have to show for the
years between_ 1872 _and_ 1897. _A principal reason is that_, _after
spending the better part of my life in the pursuit of poetry_, _I found
myself_ (_about_ 1877) _so utterly unmarketable that I had to own myself
beaten in art_, _and to addict myself to journalism for the next ten
years_. _Came the production by my old friend_, _Mr. H. B. Donkin_, _in
his little collection of_ ‘_Voluntaries_’ (1888), _compiled for that
East-End Hospital to which he has devoted so much time and energy and
skill_, _of those unrhyming rhythms in which I had tried to
quintessentialize_, _as_ (_I believe_) _one scarce can do in rhyme_, _my
impressions of the Old Edinburgh Infirmary_. _They had long __since been
rejected by every editor of standing in London—I had well-nigh said in
the world_; _but as soon as Mr. Nutt had read them_, _he entreated me to
look for more_. _I did as I was told_; _old dusty sheaves were dragged
to light_; _the work of selection and correction was begun_; _I burned
much_; _I found that_, _after all_, _the lyrical instinct had slept—not
died_; _I ventured_ (_in brief_) ‘_A Book of Verses_.’ _It was received
with so much interest that I took heart once more_, _and wrote the
numbers presently reprinted from_ ‘_The National Observer_’ _in the
collection first_ (1892) _called_ ‘_The Song of the Sword_’ _and
afterwards_ (1893), ‘_London voluntaries_.’ _If I have said nothing
since_, _it is that I have nothing to say which is not_, _as yet_, _too
personal—too personal and too a afflicting—for utterance_.
_For the matter of my book_, _it is there to speak for itself_:—
‘_Here’s a sigh to those who love me_
_And a smile to those who hate_.’
_I refer to it for the simple pleasure of reflecting that it has made me
many friends and some enemies_.
_W. E. H._
_Muswell Hill_, 4_th_ _September_ 1897.