in "The Gardener's Daughter." Hallam told him at this time that "The nightingale with long and low preamble," in the sonnet which I give, was "worth an estate in Golconda." Check every outflash, every ruder sally Of thought and speech, speak low, and give up wholly Thy spirit to mild-minded Melancholy: This is the place. Thro' yonder poplar alley, Below, the blue green river windeth slowly, But in the middle of the sombre valley, The crisped waters whisper musically, And all the haunted place is dark and holy. The nightingale, with long and low preamble, Warbled from yonder knoll of solemn latches, And in and out the woodbine's flowery arches The summer midges wove their wanton gambol, And all the white-stemm'd pinewood slept above, When in this valley first I told my love.
My father contributed "Anacreontics," "No More 1 and "A Fragment," to a literary annual The Gem; and Moxon, who had some sparks of poetry in him, and had come into possession of the Englishman's Magazine, wished to start with a "flash number," and asked Hallam to persuade my father to forward him a poem which would appear along with contributions from Wordsworth, Southey, and Charles Lamb. Hallam urged him ( July 15th, 1831) to send "The Sisters," ____________________ | | spectacles he could see as far as any long-sighted person. At this time he went to see Brodie for his eyes, and began to talk so learnedly about them, that Brodie raised his hand saying: "Wait; remember I never see medical students without a fee." His hearing was extraordinarily keen, and this he held to be a compensation for his short-sight: he "could hear the shriek of a bat," which he said was the test of a fine ear. | | 1 | "No More" is written out in Arthur Hallam's handwriting in a common-place book belonging to Archdeacon Allen, and is dated by Arthur Hallam 1826. Although my father considered the poem crude, it is re- markable for a boy of seventeen.," | -80- |