ne,_ May, 1829.

* * * * *

Page 53. _On an Infant Dying as soon as Born._

This poem was first printed in _The Gem,_ 1829. _The Gem_ was then
edited by Thomas Hood, whose child--his firstborn--it was thatinspired
the poem. Lamb sent the verses to Hood in May, 1827.

This is, I think, in many ways Lamb's most remarkable poem.

Hood's own poem on the same event, printed in _Memorials of Thomas
Hood_, by his daughter, 1860, has some of the grace and tenderness of
the Greek Anthology:--

Little eyes that scarce did see,
Little lips that never smiled;
Alas! my little dear dead child,
Death is thy father, and not me,
I but embraced thee, soon as he!

* * * * *

Page 55. _To Bernard Barton._

These lines were sent to Barton in 1827, together with the picture. On
June 11, Lamb wrote again:--

"DEAR B.B.,

"One word more of the picture verses, and that for good and all; pray,
with a neat pen alter one line--

"His learning seems to lay small stress on--

"to

"His learning lays no mighty stress on,

"to avoid the unseemly recurrence (ungrammatical also) of 'seems' in the
next line, besides the nonsense of 'but' there, as it now stands. And I
request you, as a personal favor to me, to erase the last line of all,
which I should never have written from myself. The fact is, it was a
silly joke of Hood's, who gave me the frame, (you judg'd rightly it was
not its own,) with the remark that you would like it because it was
b-----d b-----d [the last line in question was 'And broad brimmed, as
the owner's calling'] and I lugg'd it in: but I shall be quite hurt if
it stands, because tho' you and yours have too good sense to object to
it, I would not have a sentence of mine seen that to any foolish ear
might sound unrespectful to thee. Let it end at 'appalling.'"

Line 1. _Woodbridge_. Barton lived at Woodbridge, in Suffolk, where he
was a clerk in the old Quaker bank of Dykes & Alexander.

Line 15. _Ann Knight_. Ann Knight was a Quaker lady, also resident at
Woodbridge, who kept a small school there, and who had visited the Lambs
in London and greatly charmed them.

Line 16. _Classic Mitford_. The Rev. John Mitford (1781-1859) was rector
of Benhall, in Suffolk, near Woodbridge, and a friend of Barton's,
through whom Lamb's acquaintance with him was carried on. Mitford edited
many poets, among them V