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SHEEN AND SHADE:
LYRICAL POEMS.
BY
WILLIAM BILLINGTON.
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BLACKBURN:
JOHN NEVILLE HAWTHORTH, TOWN HALL BUILDINGS.
LONDON:
HALL & VIRTUE, PATERNOSTER ROW.
1861.
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ENTERED AT STATIONERS' HALL.
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BLACKBURN:
PRINTED BY JOHN NEVILLE HAWORTH, TOWN HALL BUILDINGS.
DEDICATION.
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TO THOMAS CLOUGH, ESQ., OF HOLLY BUSH, BLACKBURN.
DEAR SIR,
By your
generous aid at length I have succeeded in collecting the scattered
offspring of my vagrant muse. They are numerous, but not
overgrown―a motley, but not immoral group. Of manners rude and
uncouth speech; they are mostly of the masculine gender, rugged in person
and ragged in apparel, with a slight sprinkling of the fair few, with
happy faces and holiday attire. Varying much in age and intellect,
in hopefulness and height, some are proud of their sense, others prefer
sentimentalism; for one that would mount with mirth, there are, perhaps,
ten that would mope with melancholy; hence life with them is less
frequently ringing out in laughter than running to waste in tears.
They are humble, but honest, and with them all, as with their dam, a wise
head and a warm heart will outweigh the wealth of worlds. Although
one or two of the merrier, albeit more mischievous, bantlings are absent,
the family circle will, doubtless, be found to be somewhat complete.
However, such as they are, I commend them to your paternal care and
kindness, and send them forth into the world to find their way, if haply
they may, to the homes and hearts of the patient but persistent, the
humble but hopeful, the suffering but still aspiring sons of toil, who,
metaphor apart, have thought the thoughts, felt the feelings, and lived
the life pourtrayed in this little volume,―the fruits of the leisure
hours of a self-taught working man,―which (in appreciation of the many
public boons you have been instrumental in conferring upon the labouring
population of Blackburn, amongst which I would particularize our FREE
PUBLIC LIBRARY) is humbly
inscribed to you as a small token of esteem and gratitude by
THE AUTHOR. |
