Author of “Hours with the Muses”
Hail! Prince of modern poets! Thou whose song
So oft hath charm’d me in dull sorrow’s hour:
To grasp thy honest hand I ofttimes long:
For few like thee have gain’d the magic power
Of charming heart and mind: it is a dower 5
Which Nature only on a few bestows,
For fear that she the honour due should lose
Which from her sons she claims. For poets are
Nature’s first fav’rites; and their only care
Is for their mother,—knowing well that she 10
Is no cross step-dame, but a parent kind,
For ever striving to endow mankind
With peace, and love, and health, and liberty,
Whose pioneers are poets such as thee.
George Markham Tweddell
[Tweddell’s Yorkshire Miscellany, p. 309, April 1846, &
The Life of John Critchley Prince, Lithgow (1880). A
second stanza can be found on p. 60]
Addition to first stanza of ‘John Critchley Prince’
II
So sang I years before we ever met;
And it delighted me when I did know
My Sonnet smooth’d one wrinkle on his brow,
Where Poverty and Care too oft were set:
And though at times he prudence did forget, 5
And sought to drown his sorrows in the bowl,
Which gives but for the moment to the soul
Ease of its pains, yet he did never let
One sordid or immoral line defile
The purity of his sweet poësy; 10
His muse being one of perfect chastity.
He loved the freedom of his native isle;
And in all things of nature he could see
Beauty and joy and heavenly purity.
George Markham Tweddell
Born Wigan, June 21st, 1808; resided for
many years at Ashton-under-Lyne; and Died
at Hyde, May 5th, 1866. [1st stanza on p. 30]
John Critchely Prince was another friend and fellow poet who Tweddell published in his publications. In the intro to Tweddell's poems (look at the top menu bar for the link) there's a comparison and exchange between them.
You can read on line The Life of John Critchley with links to his poetry on line - here -
http://gerald-massey.org.uk/prince/b_biog.htm
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