POETIC GEMS: Partly Original; BUT CHIEFLY SELECTED FROM THE BEST AUTHORS: DESIGNED TO ENRICH THE MEMORIES AND FORM THE TASTE OF YOUNG PERSONS OF BOTH SEXES. By S. BLACKBURN, A.M. MASTER OF THE ACADEMY, SIR ISAAC'S WALK, COLCHESTER. Colchester: PRINTED BY AND FOR G. DENNIS; AND SOLD BY SIMPKIN AND LONDON; AND BY MOZLEY AND SON, DERBY. 1833. 1 Having stated the faults of other Collections of Poetry for Schools, it is hardly necessary to say I have endeavoured to avoid them. No piece of an objectionable tendency will be found in the following pages: consequently the whole is available for the purposes for which Poetical Works are used in Schools. My object has been to furnish the Heads of Seminaries and Private Teachers with a little Work which they may with confidence place in the hands of their Pupils; and my hope is, that these “Poetic Gems” will enrich their memories and form their taste for the writings of our best Poets, at an age when the mind most readily receives and tenaciously retains whatever is presented to it through the medium of verse. S. BLACKBURN. Sir Isaac's Walk Academy, Colchester, June, 1833. CONTENTS. PAGE On visiting a Scene of Childhood Human Life compared to the Seasons Voltaire compared with a Cottager Slavery injurious to Man and offensive to God .. Cowper. 76 To my Daughter, on her Birth-Day İnscription under the Picture of an aged J. Montgomery. 121 Henry the Fourth's Soliloquy on Sleep .. Shakspeare. 127 Cardinal Wolsey's Lamentation on his Fall ...ditto. 128 On a Distant Prospect of Eton College To the Memory of a Favourite Dog To a Butterfly, on giving it liberty Miss Taylor. 177 The Traveller at the Source of the Nile.... Mrs. Hemans. 183 The West Indian Slave Owner ..J. Montgomery. 185 Tyre |