Excerpt from Songs of the Seasons: And Other Poems The present volume exhibits specimens of my moody but delight ful companion. She is ever to me a source of inefi'able pleasure. She is too independent to court the favors of the great, and shrinks from seeking the applause of the vulgar. Her joys are in the sanctuary of the domestic circle. My task is simply to give to the world the promptings of her inspiration. Should they be received with the smiles of favor, she may be encouraged to future exertion; but should the tribunal of the public, before which she is about to appear, doom her in justice to eternal oblivion, let her go unlamented. Whatever the decision may be, there is no danger of my pining away under a feeling of withering neglect. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.