And Southey,
kindly and generous, loving his own children fondly, loved and
cared for his nephews and nieces too. We cannot regard Southey
as one of our great poets, but when we read his letters, we must
love him as a man. He wrote several long poems, the two best
known perhaps are The Curse of Kehama and Thalaba, the one a
Hindoo, the other a Mahometan story, but he is better remembered
by his short poems, such as The Battle of Blenheim and The
Inchcape Rock.
For forty years Southey lived at Greta Hall, and from his letters
we get the pleasantest picture of the home-loving, nonsense-
loving "comical papa" who had kept the heart of a boy, even when
his hair grew gray--
"A man he is by nature merry,
Somewhat Tom-foolish, and comical very;
Who has gone through the world, not mindful of self,
Upon easy terms, thank Heaven, with himself."
He loved his books and he loved the little curly-headed children
that gathered about him with pattering feet and chattering
tongues, and never wished to be absent from them.
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