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- 5773
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- 2026-01-30T20:48:14.842Z
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- 5745
- text
- Indeed, throughout, the work abounds with quaint poetical quotations,
and old-fashioned classical allusions to the Aeneid and Falconer’s
Shipwreck.
And the anonymous author must have been not only a scholar and a
gentleman, but a man of gentle disinterestedness, combined with true
city patriotism; for in his _“Survey of__ the Town”_ are nine thickly
printed pages of a neglected poem by a neglected Liverpool poet.
By way of apologizing for what might seem an obtrusion upon the public
of so long an episode, he courteously and feelingly introduces it by
saying, that _“the poem has now for several years been scarce, and is
at present but little known; and hence a very small portion of it will
no doubt be highly acceptable to the cultivated reader; especially as
this noble epic is written with great felicity of expression and the
sweetest delicacy of feeling.”_
Once, but once only, an uncharitable thought crossed my mind, that the
author of the Guide-Book might have been the author of the epic. But
that was years ago; and I have never since permitted so uncharitable a
reflection to insinuate itself into my mind.
This epic, from the specimen before me, is composed in the old stately
style, and rolls along commanding as a coach and four. It sings of
Liverpool and the Mersey; its docks, and ships, and warehouses, and
bales, and anchors; and after descanting upon the abject times, when
_“his noble waves, inglorious, Mersey rolled,”_ the poet breaks forth
like all Parnassus with:—
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