THE TRUTH ABOUT CALVERLEY'S "ODE TO TOBACCO" [To the Editor
of the SPECTATOR.]
Sta,7—Calverley's "Ode to Tobacco" was first published in Verses and Translations in 1861 or 1862. The second edition in the Bodleian is 1862. "Mr. Leslie's Song" is quoted in the unsigned "Recollections of Charles Stuart Calverley," Temple Bar, Vol. 79, No. 314, January, 1887, pp. 67, 68.
I enclose a copy with the introductory sentences. When Mrs. Creighton's book-came out, a year or two- ago, some reviewers confused these two poems-and now the mistake has been made again. 'It would be well, -if it were possible; to set this matter right for ever by printing both poems. If this is impossible because of the demands on your space, a verse or two from each would show the difference between thern.
It is difficult to explain the mistake made by the writer in Temple Bar. The most probable interpretation seems to be that Calverley gave his friend a copy of the verses by the young Quaker ladies, and that his friend assumed that they were written by Calverley himself.—I am, Sir, &c.; Wykeham House, Oxford. ' E: B. POULTON.
[The introduction to "Mr. Leslie's Song" is as follows "Calverley' once gave me two songs of his for publication. It agai li1iieh4-Pithlished many- years ago
in a great Scottish.city. The tale has been out of print ler a great many years. One of these songs, 0 a life in the country so ioyous,' as Stanzas fOr-lIfuSie,' has 1?een puhliShefl-in his,' Remains,' but yo7uld never see much • The other, which is not at all'known. is- much more eharticteristic.- It came out Mr. I.eslie's Song.' "
The following is the first verse of "Mr. Leslie's Song";
There is a raPture, exceeding all measure, Left to enliven this sorrowful world ; Who does not think of that moment with pleasure, When first round his lips the wreathing smoke curled Parents look grave or sick, Call it a nasty trick, Say it is ruinous—say it is wrong ; Happy indeed his lot, Who, for these caring not, Puffs like a chimney pot All the day long.
That is evidently by a very different hand from the one whit...A wrote the famous ode beginning :—
At
—ED. Spectator.]
Thou who, when fears attack. Bidst them avaunt, and Black Care, at the hoiseman's back Perching, unseatest ; Sweet, when the morn is gray: Sweet, when they've cleared away Lunch ; and at close of day
Possibly sweetest."
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