I too can hunt a Poetaster down


Photograph

Gift of the Division of Modern Languages, 1918 – *EC8.M7868.801p
’Tis LITTLE! young Catullus of his day,
As sweet, but as immoral in his lay!

Thomas Moore (1779-1852). The Poetical Works of the Late Thomas Little (London, 1801).

“Heigho! I believe all the mischief I have ever done, or sung, has been owing to that confounded book of yours,” Byron confided to Moore, his friend and future biographer. Published pseudonymously, Moore’s ardent verses impressed Byron as a schoolboy at Harrow. The book’s duodecimo format (“Little’s Lyrics shine in hot-pressed twelves”) also appealed to Byron, who requested the same for the second edition of Hours of Idleness. Other lines in English Bards, and Scotch Reviewers were not received so well by the Irish poet.