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Home  »  The Book of the Sonnet  »  Thomas James Judkin

Hunt and Lee, comps. The Book of the Sonnet. 1867.

I. Special Pleading

Thomas James Judkin

(Craving the Critic’s Notice)

GENTLE, it is my wont, when newly writ

A sonnet, madrigal, or ode, to show

The same to Emily, that I may know

By her sweet face (taste’s dial) if in it

Be aught unworthy of a poet’s fit;

And with the knittings of her altered brow,

Or with the playful smiles that come and go,

I hold no parle, but instantly commit,

Or not, such brain-work to the flames. Thus, Sir,

I now beseech, in Courtesy’s good name,

Where there is need thou wilt but gently blame,

Seeing that half the fault belongs to her;

Yet speak thy best praise freely when ’t is due,

Since one kind word for her, to me is two.