The Works of Lord Byron (ed. Coleridge, Prothero)/Poetry/Volume 7/A Volume of Nonsense
A VOLUME OF NONSENSE.
Dear Murray,—
You ask for a "Volume of Nonsense,"
Have all of your authors exhausted their store?
I thought you had published a good deal not long since.
And doubtless the Squadron are ready with more.
But on looking again, I perceive that the Species
Of "Nonsense" you want must be purely "facetious;"
And, as that is the case, you had best put to press
Mr. Sotheby's tragedies now in M.S.,
Some Syrian Sally
From common-place Gally,
Or, if you prefer the bookmaking of women,
Take a spick and span "Sketch" of your feminine He-Man.[1]
Sept. 28, 1820.
[First published, Letters, 1900, v. 83.]
[First published, Letters, 1900, v. 83.]
- ↑ [For Felicia Dorothea Browne (1793-1835), married in 1812 to Captain Hemans, see Letters, iii. 368, note 2. In the letter which contains these verses he writes, "I do not despise Mrs. Heman; but if she knit blue stockings instead of wearing them it would be better." Elsewhere he does despise her: "No more modern poesy, I pray, neither Mrs. Hewoman's nor any female or male Tadpole of poet Wordsworth's."—Ibid., v. 64.]