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Excerpt from The Poems and Plays of Sir Walter Scott, Vol. 1 of 2 The critic who would praise without reserve the poetry of Scott, has not only all the other critics against him, but has to reckon with Sir Walter himself. He frankly stated that he never cared much for his own poetry: he did not think it of sufficient excellence for his children to read, but regarded it as a "light horse" kind of rhyme, fit for young men fond of adventure and of the open air. In his address to William Erskine, his friend and adviser, in the Preface to the Third Canto of Marmion, he speaks as all honest poets must speak to all such friends. These are continually asking a man not to be himself, not to do what heaven has given him the power of doing, but to attempt something else. Erskine wanted Scott to study the classics. "Vos exemplaria Graeca Nocturna versate manu, versate diurna." He suggested topics: "Brunswick's venerable hearse," the "Red Cross Knight," or a revival of Tragedy, which Sir Walter, as enthusiastic for his friends' work as indifferent to his own, thought had been sufficiently revived by Miss Joanna Baillie. He himself was content to - "Ape the measure wild Of tales that charmed me as a child." He describes his early boyhood, the haunted towers he knew - "Methought that still with tramp and clang The gateway's broken arches rang... And ever, by the winter hearth. Old tales I heard of woe and mirth, Of lovers' sleights, of ladies' charms, Of witches' spells, and warriors' arms.' Scottish memories, all the hot-blooded past of the race, these were, these were to be, his topics. His manner was, and was to be, what heaven made it - "Though wild as cloud,' as stream, as gale, Flow forth, flow unrestrained, my tale." About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Book details

Book category Books in English Literature & literary studies Poetry Poetry by individual poets

• Full title: Poems and Plays of Sir Walter Scott, Vol. 1 of 2 (Classic Reprint)
• Author: Sir Walter Scott
• Language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 620
• EAN: 9781331271499
• ISBN: 9781331271499
• ID: 09735738
• Publisher: Forgotten Books
• Weight: 816 g
• Dimensions: 229 × 152 × 32 mm
• Date of publishing: 12. July 2015

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