LECTOR Benevole! -- for so They used to call you, years ago, -- I can't pretend to make you read The pages that to this succeed; Nor would I, if I could, excuse The wayward promptings of the Muse, At whose command I wrote them down. I have no hope to 'please the town.' I did but think some friendly soul (Not ill-advised, upon the whole!) Might like them; and -- 'to interpose A little ease,' -- between the prose, Slipped in the scraps of verse, that thus Things might be less monotonous. Then, Lector, be Benevolus! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE RUSSIAN ARMY GOES INTO BAKU by ALICIA SUSKIN OSTRIKER THE RUNAWAY SLAVE AT PILGRIM'S POINT by ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING TO A CAPTIOUS CRITIC by PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR SEVEN TIMES SEVEN [- LONGING FOR HOME] by JEAN INGELOW TO CHARLOTTE PULTENEY [IN HER MOTHER'S ARMS] by AMBROSE PHILIPS HINC LACHRIMAE; OR THE AUTHOR TO AURORA: 43 by WILLIAM BOSWORTH UPON MY DEAR AND LOVING HUSBAND HIS GOING INTO ENGLAND, 1661 by ANNE BRADSTREET AN INDIAN AT THE BURIAL PLACE OF HIS FATHERS by WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT |