Entered, according to act of Congress, in the year 1841, by WILLIAM PLUMER, JR.,

in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of

New-Hampshire.

EXETER:

FRANCIS GRANT'S OFFICE.

C. Norris, Pr.

PREFACE.

THE poems arranged, in this volume, under the title of YOUTH, OR SCENES FROM THE PAST, are so far connected with each other, that they all relate, more or less directly, to thoughts, feelings, or events, personal to the author. His aim has been to make each sonnet, or short poem, complete in itself; yet so to construct the whole that, when combined, they should fall naturally into one connected series. This series, if finished according to the original design, would form three separate Parts; corresponding to the natu ral division of human life into Youth, Manhood, and Age. The first Part only, which traces the developement of the mental and bodily powers, in the stud

ies and amusements of Youth, is here presented to

the reader. It is complete in itself, and has no necessary connexion with the two remaining Parts.