Page:Elegiac Sonnets and Other Poems Volume I.pdf/15

 PREFACE

TO THE

FIRST AND SECOND EDITIONS.

THE little Poems which are here called Sonnets, have, I believe, no very just claim to that title; but they consist of fourteen lines, and appear to me no improper vehicle for a single sentiment. I am told, and I read it as the opinion of very good judges, that the legitimate Sonnet is ill calculated for out language. The specimen Mr, Hayley has given, though they form a strong exception, prove no more than that the difficulties of the attempt vanish before uncommon powers.

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