Angel in the House

There could be but one answer to the suggestion of Mr. Coventry Patmore that his "Angel in the House" might usefully have a place in this "National Library." The suggestion was made with the belief that wide and cheap diffusion would not take from the value of a copyright library edition, while the best use of writing is fulfilled by the spreading of verse dedicated to the sacred love of home. The two parts of the Poem appeared in 1854 and 1856, were afterwards elaborately revised, and have since obtained a permanent place among the Home Books of the English People. Our readers will join, surely, in thanks to the author for the present he has made us.

H. M.

THE ANGEL IN THE HOUSE

BOOK I.

THE PROLOGUE.

1

'Mine is no horse with wings, to gain

The region of the spheral chime;
He does but drag a rumbling wain,

Cheer'd by the coupled bells of rhyme;
And if at Fame's bewitching note

My homely Pegasus pricks an ear,
The world's cart-collar hugs his throat,

And he's too wise to prance or rear.'

2

Thus ever answer'd Vaughan his Wife,

Who, more than he, desired his fame;
But, in his heart, his thoughts were rife

How for her sake to earn a name.
With bays poetic three times crown'd,

And other college honours won,
He, if he chose, might be renown'd,