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Perhaps there is no instance upon record of a man like me, upwards of eighty, enlisting among the Poets; and, for the first time, handing to the world a volume of Verse. I may justly be called "A short-lived Poet."
Thus William Hutton introduces this volume of poems, which appeared in 1804. He also explains that, having given up writing poetry for some forty years, he had been inspired to begin again by the loss of his life's works when his houses were destroyed in the Birmingham riots of 1791. The poems themselves are varied, ranging from the scatological (Lord Chesterfield and the farmer's wife) to a jeu d'esprit (To Miss P-whose lip was stung by a wasp).
The full text can also be read online or downloaded free of charge. It is in XHTML format, like this page. Please note the file size is 480kb and it may take some time to open-up if you choose to read it online. Downloading for reading later may be the preferred option and this can be typically achieved by calling up an option box. If you have a mouse and it is configured for left click to select, right clicking the link may give you this option. Link to the full text of Poems; chiefly tales.
William Hutton, in describing his poems, admits they are slightly old-fashioned:
My Poems, like myself, are in the stile of the last generation. They boast no language but the intelligent; neither will the tale admit of any other. They are remarks upon real life, character, and incident.
The language is certainly not florid or romantic, and, indeed, there are echoes of Swift in some of the down-to-earth and coarsely witty jokes, particularly those at the expense of the clergy.
And, pray, what is't to you or me
Where any parson's breeches be?
Or, should they hang about his heels,
It is not you, but he, who feels;
Nay, e'en to pull them off was naught,
The evil lies in being caught.
Page created 5 December 2002 and last
updated 5 December 2002
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