ABSTRACT
Published Cornhill, Dec. 1863, as the third of ‘Attempts at Classic Metres in Quantity’; then 1864, among ‘Experiments in Quantity’. Written autumn 1863 (CT, p. 346). All variants from HnMS (HM 19498) are below. ‘These must be read with the English accent’ (T.). He used the metre again for an attack on a critic, The Gentle Life (III 12). Cp. Campion’s epigrams in his Obse A t of Englh Poey (1602) O you chorus of indolent reviewers, Irresponsible, indolent reviewers, Look, I come to the test, a tiny poem All composed in a metre of Catullus, All in quantity, careful of my motion, Like the skater on ice that hardly bears him, Lest I fall unawares before the people, Waking laughter in indolent reviewers. Should I flounder awhile without a tumble Through this metrification of Catullus, They should speak to me not without a welcome, All that chorus of indolent reviewers. Hard, hard, hard is it, only not to tumble, So fantastical is the dainty metre. Wherefore slight me not wholly, nor believe me Too presumptuous, indolent reviewers. O blatant Magazines, regard me rather — Since I blush to belaud myself a moment — As some rare little rose, a piece of inmost Horticultural art, or half coquette-like Maiden, not to be greeted unbenignly.
