War Poems Songs and Other Verse - Sentimental, Humorous, Philosophical #265974

That one now over eighty years of age should venture, for the first time, to launch a book, and more especially a book of poems, and the further fact that he had reached the half-cen tury mark before sending his first contribution to the press, seems like flying in the face of the famous dictum of that eminent man, Professor Osler. I must confess that the dominant feeling that suggested offering my poems in book form (a feeling I believe shared by many who, like myself, have devoted much of their time to the Muse) was a reluctance to consign to oblivion what I had come to consider my progeny. Notwithstanding this feeling, I had abandoned the idea of publishing, and had consigned my manuscripts to my son's care, with instructions concerning them. And it was only recently, at the request and promptings of several friends, and letters from persons I had never seen, but who had read some of my contributions in the papers and thanked me for the pleasure they had obtained in the perusal of my verses, that I felt impelled to reconsider my original intention. One of these letters will be found on page 81.