AustLit

Epigraph: I cannot, cannot change my tone,/ My lute must breath what is its own;/ It is my own heart that has taught/ My constancy of mournful thought. - L. E. L.

Dedication: Inscribed to L. E. L.

The dedication is followed by a verse of 49 lines beginning: 'It is thine own heart that has taught'

L. E. L. was probably the English poet Letitia Elizabeth Landon. The epigraph is from Landon's poem 'Christine' published in The Literary Souvenir; or, Cabinet of Poetry and Romance in 1825 under Landon's writing name of L. E. L.

Editor's note: [Charles Macdonald, the Author of the 'Coranal', to whose genius we are indebted for the above Poem, in addition to the calamity of blindness is at preset labouring under a serious indisposition in the Benevolent Asylum. The history of this individual furnishes us with another of the many lamentable instances which might be adduced of the misfortune attendant on poetic genius. His lot is pitiable in the extreme, and is such as we feel confident no benevolent person could contemplate with indifference. It is easy for us to imagine how his spirits must be depressed by the weight of his afflictions. A person endowed with the least spark of talent, could not endure to be placed in such a situation without an involuntary murmur. His ideas are generally good, and sometimes very superior, and we hesitate not to assert that, were he in possession of his sight, his health, and a comfortable home, he would be a credit to the land of his nativity. It is astonishing to think that, under his present circumstances, he could be so successful as he is. Since he has been blind, he has written a large quantity of poetry-a quantity such as must have cost him infinite mental exertions. he has laboured through a host of difficulties to instruct and amuse the public, and surely if the appeal were made, the public would not think it too much to contribute towards raising him from the depths of misery into which he is at present plunged. On such an object as this, public charity would not be thrown away. His sight is at present obscured by a gutta serena, and could, were he possessed of the means of proceeding to England for professional assistance, be perfectly restored.]-ED.