On Reviewing my Verses for Publication
As o’er the various page I bend
Approve dislike or strive to mend
Chagrin arose & frowning spread
Her gloomy pinions oer my Head
The baleful Dew her plumes distill’d
My Mind with dark Ideas filld
How low the Line How dull the page
What Ear can rhymes like these engage
The Press Ah No! suppress the thought
By just reflection better taught.
They write with Life who write to please
Let lines so spiritless as these
To dark Oblivion be unsign’d
Be wise & learn a humbler Mind
So spake Chagrin imperious Sprite.
And snatchd the papers from my sight
But Friendship came with cheerful Air
And smiling stood behind my Chair
Her presence shed a cheering ray
And drove the gloomy powr away
In haste she fled & left her prize
Which friendship view’d with partial Eyes
And shall Chagrin she eager cry’d
Presume to censure & decide
That Priviledge alone is mine
I to the Press the work consign
Come raise your head & droop no more
If candid Minds the page explore
They will confess that Lines like these
Tho far from faultless yet may please
The Lay which Piety approves
Which virtue guards & friendship loves
Which asks no smile of flattering fame
Oblivion cannot dares not claim
Text: MS, Steele Collection, Angus Library, Regents Park College, STE 3/3/1; this poem first published in Nonconformist Women Writers, 1720-1840, vol. 2 (ed. Julia B. Griffin), pp. 146-47.