Project Gutenberg's The Poetical Works of Thomas Hood, by Thomas Hood

This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net

Title: The Poetical Works of Thomas Hood

Author: Thomas Hood

Release Date: April 18, 2005 [EBook #15652]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE POETICAL WORKS OF THOMAS HOOD ***

Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Robert Prince, Leonard Johnson and
the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net.

THE POETICAL WORKS

OF

THOMAS HOOD

WITH BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION

BY

WILLIAM MICHAEL ROSSETTI

ENLARGED AND REVISED EDITION

A. L. BURT COMPANY, PUBLISHERS, 52-58 DUANE STREET, NEW YORK

[Illustration: THOMAS HOOD.]

BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION.

There were scarcely any events in the life of Thomas Hood. One
condition there was of too potent determining importance--life-long ill
health; and one circumstance of moment--a commercial failure, and
consequent expatriation. Beyond this, little presents itself for record
in the outward facts of this upright and beneficial career, bright with
genius and coruscating with wit, dark with the lengthening and deepening
shadow of death.

The father of Thomas Hood was engaged in business as a publisher and
bookseller in the Poultry, in the city of London,--a member of the firm
of Vernor, Hood, and Sharpe. He was a Scotchman, and had come up to the
capital early in life, to make his way. His interest in books was not
solely confined to their saleable quality. He reprinted various old
works with success; published Bloomfield's poems, and dealt handsomely
with him; and was himself the author of two novels, which are stated to
have had some success in their day. For the sake of the son rather than
the father, one would like to see some account, with adequate
specimens, of these long-forgotten tales; for the queries which Thomas
Hood asks concerning the piteous woman of his _Bridge of Sighs_
interest us all concerning a man of genius, and interest us moreover
with regard to the question of intellectual as well as natural
affinity:--

"Who was his father,
Who was his mother?
Had he a sister,
Had he a brother?"

Another line of work