Continuing Reportage from the Poetry Front

[larryhammer]

The Worst English Poets also has more information about the Robert Peter I quoted as an exemplar in the art of sinking. He was one of that tribe of sailing poetasters so memorably depicted by Patrick O'Brian -- in 1875 he published The Solace of Leisure Hours; or, Essays of Poesy as by "A. Sailor" (one wonders what the initial is short for). The two other works included by Adams show the same sinking genius as his oft-anthologized* quatrain. Thus:

'Tis thus with me: I cherish dear
  Each fond memorial of affection;
My heart the impress still shall wear—
Though fate doth now asunder tear
  Those ties, the cause of my dejection.

For soon the dark, deep rolling waves
  Of wild Atlantic shall us sever;
And while around me ocean raves,
Still warm remembrance friendship craves;
  Thee, M. M. Woods, forget I'll never!

This is a passage from a unidentified poem, but I suspect it's "The Lamentable Loss of the H.M.S. Syntax." The other selection, from his verse-autobiography, "The Ocean Farer's Pilgrimage," has the distinction of being the most sanctimonious piece in the entire volume -- which is some sort of impressive given there's a section of Temperance poems.


* Not only does it appear in three of the four recently mentioned collections of bad verse, but Adams includes it twice.

---L.