PREFACE. SOME of the poems in this volume were written at an early age; others, amid domestic or maternal cares. The greater part were suggested by passing occasions, and partake of the nature of extemporaneous productions; all reveal by their brevity, the short periods of time allotted to their construction. Like wild flowers among the dells, or clefts of the rock, they sprang up wherever the path of life chanced to lead. She who gathered, and now offers them to the beloved clime of her birth, selects for their motto the truthful words of an eloquent writer : "Though I expect from them neither profit nor general fame, I consider myself amply repaid without either. Poetry has been to me, its own exceeding great reward. It possesses power to soothe affliction, to multiply and refine enjoyment, to endear solitude, and to give the habit of discovering the good and the beautiful, in all that meets or surrounds us." HARTFORD, Conn., Feb. 5th, 1845. |