Prose Sketches and Poems

Whilst the greatest effort has been made to ensure the quality of this text, due to the historical nature of this content, in some rare cases there may be minor issues with legibility. With respect to the Prose part of this book 1 have nothing to say, except that such portions of it as purport to be true, are actually and truly facts. With respect to the Poems, the kind public will indulge me in saying a brief word. For them I have to ask no indulgence, and the public, I know, ought to have none to grant. It is not my intention to bespeak for them any degree of favor, but merely to mention, in passing, that if there be in them imitation of any writer, I trust that it extends only to the style; and I know that I have not wilfully committed plagiarism. It is possible that the imitation may extend farther than I suppose. It is some time since I have seen the works of any poet; and the things of memory have become so confused with those of my own imagination, that I am at times, when an idea flashes upon me, uncertain whether it be my own, or whether, like the memory of a dream, it has clung to my mind from the works of some of the poets, till it has seemed to become my own peculiar property.

If I am accused of affectation, I needs must deny the charge. What I have written has been a transcript of my own feelings - too much so, perhaps, for the purposes of fame. Writing has been to me, always, a communing with my own soul.