Page images
PDF
EPUB

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 FÖR G. DENNIS; AND SOLD BY

SIMPKIN AND

MARSHALL, DARTON AND SON, AND H. WASHBOURNE,
LONDON; AND BY MOZLEY AND SON, DERBY.

1833.

Entered at Stationers' Hall.

MUSIC.
#RITAN

PREFACE.

THE Selections of Poetry hitherto in use as School Books have been generally complained of, either as too puerile for the higher forms; or, if of a more elevated tone and character, as unsuitable and injurious, from the amatory, and not unfrequently profane Pieces which they contain. To specify the Titles of these Works would be invidious: every teacher of youth is acquainted with the fact, and has felt the difficulty it necessarily occasions.

In endeavouring to avoid one evil, the Compilers of Poetry for Schools have fallen into another. The sublime doctrines, and peculiar and exalted privileges of our Holy Religion, couched in language only suited to the well-taught and experienced Christian, have been furnished to the School Boy as a task, or selected for the purpose of instructing him in the art of reading! Such unhallowed familiarity with sacred things too frequently leads the Youth to regard religion with indifference or contempt; instead of his approaching it with reverence, and contemplating its doctrines and its blessings with affectionate delight.

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.

Sir Isaac's Walk Academy,
Colchester, June, 1833,

S. BLACKBURN,

1

« ՆախորդըՇարունակել »