Excerpt from Poems and Other Literary Remains of the Late Rowland Lyttelton Archer Davies, of Tasmania: Edited, With a Biographical Sketch

But Should a distant colony really produce a man of literary genius, is it too much to suppose that the colonists would be proud of him, would cherish him, and never tire Of admiring his work? And the more so, if that writer Should identify himself with his native colonial life, manners, and scenery, and by his genius direct the attention of the world to a land whose beauties have been portrayed by his pen.

In many respects Rowland Lyttelton Archer Davies possessed these qualifications, as I shall endeavour to Show in this memoir, and in the various specimens of poetry and prose which make up this volume. It must he remarked at starting that none Of the papers here collected were ever intended for publication. Like many men Of genius, Rowland threw off his verses in careless haste, as if to gratify some urgent mental instinct, and then became indifferent as to their future destiny. When he was sent to England for the completion of his education, he resided in my house as a pupil for the term Of one year. My Wife and I soon recognised his genius, and it was by her carethat many Of the poems were deciphered, copied, and thus preserved. During Rowland's residence in my house, my wife brought out a tale entitled The Sisters (published by the Christian Knowledge Society), in which she inserted a poem by Davies in two parts, in the first of which he described a Tasma nian forest in all its beauty, and in the second part the scene after the forest had been destroyed by fire. Some verses were also published at my request by the late Mortimer Collins, in a periodical that he was editing. With these exceptions, I am not aware that any of the matter contained in the following pages has appeared in print. After Rowland's death, his mother requested me to let her see anything of her son's that I happened to have by me, and accordingly I forwarded to her the collection that had been made by my late wife. Mrs. Davies consulted me how She could best leave some memorial behind her of the genius of her son, and I advised her to print a selection from his letters, prose Sketches and poems, in a small volume to which I undertook to contribute a memoir Of the author. Such is the history Of the work which is now in the reader's hands.

About the Publisher

Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com

This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.