QUATORZAINS
TO THE AUTHOR OF “QUATRAINS.”
In feeling, like a stricken deer, I’ve been
Self-put out from the herd, friend Lamb; for I
Imagined all the sympathies between
Mankind and me had ceased, till your full cry
Of kindness reach’d and roused me, as I lay
“Musing--on divers things foreknown:” it bid
Me know, in you, a friend; with a fine gay
Sincerity, before all men it chid,
Or rather, by not chiding, seem’d to chide
Me, for long absence from you; re-invited
Me, with a herald’s trump, and so defied
Me to remain immured; and it requited
Me, for others’ harsh misdeeming--which I trust is
Now, or will be, known by them, to be injustice.
I _am_ “ingenuous:” it is all I can
Pretend to; it is all I wish to be;
Yet, through obliquity of sight in man,
From constant gaze on tortuosity,
Few people understand me: still, I am
Warmly affection’d to each human being;
Loving the right, for right’s sake; and, friend Lamb,
Trying to see things as they are; hence, seeing
_Some_ “good in ev’ry thing” however bad,
Evil in many things that look most fair,
And pondering on all: this may be mad-
ness, but it is my method; and I dare
Deductions from a strange diversity
Of things, not taught within a University.
No schools of science open’d to my youth;
No learned halls, no academic bowers;
No one had I to point my way to truth,
Instruct my ign’rance, or direct my powers:
Yet I, though all unlearned, p’rhaps may aid
The march of knowledge in our “purer age,”
And, without seeming, may perchance persuade
The young to think,--to virtue some engage:
So have I hoped, and with this end in view,
My little _Every-Day Book_ I design’d;
Praise of the work, and of its author too,
From you, friend Lamb, is more than good and kind:
To such high meed I did not dare aspire
As public honour, from the hand of ALLWORTHY ELIA.
As to the message from your friend above:--
Do me the favour to present my best
Respects to old “Dan Phœbus,” for the “love”
He bears the _Every-Day Book_: for the rest,
That is, the handsome mode he has selected
Of making me fine compliments by you, ’tis
So flatt’ring to me, and so much respected
By me, that, if you please, and it should suit his
Highness, I must rely upon you, for
Obtaining his command, to introduce me
To him yourself, when quite convenient; or
I trust, at any rate, you’ll not refuse me
A line, to signify, that I’m the person known
To him, through you, friend Lamb, as
_Your Friend_