MADAM,

With profound respect,

Your MAJESTY'S

Devoted servant,

HELEN MARIA WILLIAMS.



PREFACE.

The apprehension which it becomes me to feel, in submitting these Poems
to the judgment of the Public, may perhaps plead my excuse, for
detaining the reader to relate, that they were written under the
disadvantages of a confined education, and at an age too young for the
attainment of an accurate taste. My first production, the Legendary Tale
of Edwin and Eltruda, was composed to amuse some solitary hours, and
without any view to publication. Being shewn to Dr. Kippis, he declared
that it deserved to be committed to the press, and offered to take upon
himself the task of introducing it to the world. I could not hesitate to
publish a composition which had received the sanction of his
approbation. By the favourable reception this little poem met with, I
was encouraged still farther to meet the public eye, in the "Ode on the
Peace," and the poem which has the title of "Peru." These poems are
inserted in the present collection, but not exactly in their original
form. I have felt it my duty to exert my endeavours in such a revision