LYRICAL BALLADS,
WITH A FEW OTHER POEMS.


LONDON

PRINTED FOR J. & A. ARCH, GRACECHURCH-STREET.

1798




ADVERTISEMENT.


It is the honourable characteristic of Poetry that its materials are to
be found in every subject which can interest the human mind. The
evidence of this fact is to be sought, not in the writings of Critics,
but in those of Poets themselves.

The majority of the following poems are to be considered as experiments.
They were written chiefly with a view to ascertain how far the language
of conversation in the middle and lower classes of society is adapted to
the purposes of poetic pleasure. Readers accustomed to the gaudiness and
inane phraseology of many modern writers, if they persist in reading
this book to its conclusion, will perhaps frequently have to struggle
with feelings of strangeness and aukwardness: they will look round for
poetry, and will be induced to enquire by what species of courtesy these
attempts can be permitted to assume that title. It is desirable that