Dedication
TO MY FATHER,
THIS VOLUME IS INSCRIBED
BY HIS SON,
THE AUTHOR.
Prefatory Letter to the Public
Dear Public:
These Poems were written with pleasure; if they be read with pleasure, I shall be requited amply. How often the Guardian Angel of the Father of Virginia in surpassing loveliness rose before my imagining eyes! Like the spirit of a dream, she glided through the foliage, verdant and shadowy. Enchanted myself, the desire to enchant others seized me. The “Poet’s Enchanted Life” is a gallery of poetic pictures of nature. Most of the minor and miscellaneous pieces, breathe the spirit of virtuous affection. If critics censure me unjustly or intemperately, I will fight them—but I hope to find them, as well as you, dear Public, very kind friends of a loving Author.
J.A. BARTLEY.