Byron's Poetical Works Volume 1

Excerpt: ...1807, when Byron was still at Cambridge, the air was full of these ephemera. To name only a few, 'All the Talents', by Polypus (Eaton Stannard Barrett), was answered by 'All the Blocks, an antidote to All the Talents', by Flagellum (W. H. Ireland); 'Elijah's Mantle, a tribute to the memory of the R. H. William Pitt', by James Sayer, the caricaturist, provoked 'Melville's Mantle, being a Parody on ¿ Elijah's Mantle'. 'The Simpliciad, A Satirico-Didactic Poem', and Lady Anne Hamilton's 'Epics of the Ton', are also of the same period. One and all have perished, but Byron read them, and in a greater or less degree they supplied the impulse to write in the fashion of the day. 'British Bards' would have lived, but, unquestionably, the spur of the article, a year's delay, and, above all, the advice and criticism of his friend Hodgson, who was at work on his 'Gentle Alterative for the Reviewers', 1809 (for further details, see vol. i., 'Letters', Letter 102, 'note' 1), produced the brilliant success of the enlarged satire. 'English Bards, and Scotch Reviewers' was recognized at once as a work of genius. It has intercepted the popularity of its great predecessors, who are often quoted, but seldom read. It is still a popular poem, and appeals with fresh delight to readers who know the names of many of the "bards" only because Byron mentions them, and count others whom he ridicules among the greatest poets of the century. ENGLISH BARDS AND SCOTCH REVIEWERS. 1   Still 2 must I hear?¿shall hoarse 3 FITZGERALD bawl   His creaking couplets in a tavern hall,   And I not sing, lest, haply, Scotch Reviews   Should dub me scribbler, and denounce my Muse?   Prepare for rhyme¿I'll publish, right or wrong:   Fools are my theme, let Satire be my song. i     Oh! Nature's noblest gift¿my grey goose-quill!   Slave of my thoughts, obedient to my will,   Torn from thy parent bird to form a pen,   That mighty instrument of little men! 10   The...