WCP6634

Published letter (WCP6634.7682)

[1] [p. 143]

The board was covered o'er with canvas white,

And looked Llyn Glwdy [Welsh: Lake Glwdy] on a moonlight night,

When to my hand there came what could be better

Than your poetic, wise, and humorous letter.

Like that good angel mentioned by Saint John1

Who ope'd seven seals, I quickly opened one,

And glancing o'er the page found to my joy

Spontaneous poetry without alloy.

The youth, cried I, who built this lofty rhyme

Will be remembered to the end of time,

And countless generations yet unborn

Will read his verse upon a summer's morn,

And think of him in that peculiar way

We think of Byron2 in the present day,

Referring to the Bible, Revelations 5:1-5.
Byron, George Gordon Noel (1788-1824). Poet, politician and leading figure of the Romantic movement.

Please cite as “WCP6634,” in Beccaloni, G. W. (ed.), Ɛpsilon: The Alfred Russel Wallace Collection accessed on 16 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/wallace/letters/WCP6634