Mr. Green has spoken of "poems" as among the products of Bunyan's pen
during this period. The compositions in verse belonging to this epoch,
of which there are several, hardly deserve to be dignified with so high a
title. At no part of his life had Bunyan much title to be called a poet.
He did not aspire beyond the rank of a versifier, who clothed his
thoughts in rhyme or metre instead of the more congenial prose, partly
for the pleasure of the exercise, partly because he knew by experience
that the lessons he wished to inculcate were more likely to be remembered
in that form. Mr. Froude, who takes a higher estimate of Bunyan's verse
than is commonly held, remarks that though it is the fashion to apply the
epithet of "doggerel" to it, the "sincere and rational meaning" which
pervades his compositions renders such an epithet improper. "His ear for
rhythm," he continues, "though less true than in his prose, is seldom
wholly at fault, and whether in prose or verse, he had the superlative
merit that he could never write nonsense." Bunyan's earliest prison
work, entitled "Profitable Meditations," was in verse, and neither this
nor his later metrical ventures before his release--his "Four Last
Things," his "Ebal and Gerizim," and his "Prison Meditations"--can be
said to show much poetical power. At best he is a mere rhymester, to
whom rhyme and metre, even when self-chosen, were as uncongenial
accoutrements "as Saul's armour was to David." The first-named book,
which is entitled a "Conference between Christ and a Sinner," in the form
of a poetical dialogue, according to Dr. Brown has "small literary merit
of any sort." The others do not deserve much higher commendation. There
is an individuality about the "Prison Meditations" which imparts to it a
personal interest, which is entirely wanting in the other two works,
which may be characterized as metrical sermons, couched in verse of the
Sternhold and Hopkins type. A specimen or two will suffice. The "Four
Last Things" thus opens:--