Samuel Rogers and his Contemporaries
Samuel Rogers to Richard Sharp, [1810?]
‘My dear Friend,—The alterations are all good,
but I confess there is a strength of expression in the line—
And weeds soon hide his unfrequented tomb, |
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which I should be sorry to part with.
‘I may be wrong, but I think Pope or Dryden might have written the following—
He dies—no traces from oblivion save, And weeds soon hide his unfrequented grave. |
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But they are all good, and you cannot choose amiss. Your last reading is
certainly most artist-like; but there is more feeling, I think, more
forlornness, in the last line as it stood at first.
‘Ever yours,
‘S. R.
‘I am rather for “mourn his doom,” I
don’t know why, than “weep his doom.” Perhaps after all I
like this best—
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ROGERS AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES
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He dies and is forgot—none mourn his doom,
And weeds soon hide his unfrequented tomb.’1
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John Dryden (1631-1700)
English poet laureate, dramatist, and critic; author of
Of Dramatick
Poesie (1667),
Absalom and Achitophel (1681),
Alexander's Feast; or the Power of Musique (1697),
The Works of Virgil translated into English Verse (1697), and
Fables (1700).
Alexander Pope (1688-1744)
English poet and satirist; author of
The Rape of the Lock (1714)
and
The Dunciad (1728).
