Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, TO A FRIEND ON HIS DESIRING ME TO PUBLISH, by MARY JULIA YOUNG


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

TO A FRIEND ON HIS DESIRING ME TO PUBLISH, by                    
First Line: With artless muse, and humble name
Last Line: The artless muse, the humble name?
Subject(s): Poetry & Poets; Publishing; Publishers


With artless Muse, and humble name,
Shall I solicit public fame?
Shall I, who sing the pensive strain,
To soothe a mind oppressed with pain,
Or in the maze of fancy stray,
To pass a cheerless hour away,
Boldly to meet Apollo rise,
And flutter in his native skies?
Presumptuous, giddy, proud, elate,
Forgetting Icarus' sad fate,
High on my treacherous plumage soar,
And fall, like him, to rise no more?
Or, to assume a strain more common,
Shall I, an unknown, untaught woman,
Expose myself to dread Reviews,—
To paragraphs in daily news?
To gall-dipp'd pens, that write one down,—
To Envy's hiss, and Critic's frown?
To printers, editors, and devils,
With a thousand other evils,
That change the high-rais'd expectation
To disappointment and vexation,
And chase, abash'd, from public fame,
The artless Muse, the humble name?




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