{"id":"01KG8AMEAPGPS4E86T8E8EBRY9","cid":"bafkreigyjmnsl46sip3bx5aqp66o2bcbdck4uewq62cgwt4x3bs4sid54a","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":1645,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:36.270Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 1","source_file":"01KG89J19NC56FFGBCM2SWEZZY","start_line":1588,"text":"CHAPTER XI.\r\nTHE PURSUIT OF POETRY UNDER DIFFICULTIES.\r\n\r\n\r\nThe feeling of insecurity concerning one’s possessions in the\r\nNeversink, which the things just narrated begat in the minds of honest\r\nmen, was curiously exemplified in the case of my poor friend Lemsford,\r\na gentlemanly young member of the After-Guard. I had very early made\r\nthe acquaintance of Lemsford. It is curious, how unerringly a man\r\npitches upon a spirit, any way akin to his own, even in the most\r\nmiscellaneous mob.\r\n\r\nLemsford was a poet; so thoroughly inspired with the divine afflatus,\r\nthat not even all the tar and tumult of a man-of-war could drive it out\r\nof him.\r\n\r\nAs may readily be imagined, the business of writing verse is a very\r\ndifferent thing on the gun-deck of a frigate, from what the gentle and\r\nsequestered Wordsworth found it at placid Rydal Mount in Westmoreland.\r\nIn a frigate, you cannot sit down and meander off your sonnets, when\r\nthe full heart prompts; but only, when more important duties permit:\r\nsuch as bracing round the yards, or reefing top-sails fore and aft.\r\nNevertheless, every fragment of time at his command was religiously\r\ndevoted by Lemsford to the Nine. At the most unseasonable hours, you\r\nwould behold him, seated apart, in some corner among the guns—a\r\nshot-box before him, pen in hand, and eyes “_in a fine frenzy\r\nrolling_.”\r\n\r\n“What’s that ’ere born nat’ral about?”—“He’s got a fit, hain’t he?”\r\nwere exclamations often made by the less learned of his shipmates. Some\r\ndeemed him a conjurer; others a lunatic; and the knowing ones said,\r\nthat he must be a crazy Methodist. But well knowing by experience the\r\ntruth of the saying, that _poetry is its own exceeding great reward_,\r\nLemsford wrote on; dashing off whole epics, sonnets, ballads, and\r\nacrostics, with a facility which, under the circumstances, amazed me.\r\nOften he read over his effusions to me; and well worth the hearing they\r\nwere. He had wit, imagination, feeling, and humour in abundance; and\r\nout of the very ridicule with which some persons regarded him, he made\r\nrare metrical sport, which we two together enjoyed by ourselves; or\r\nshared with certain select friends.\r\n\r\nStill, the taunts and jeers so often levelled at my friend the poet,\r\nwould now and then rouse him into rage; and at such times the haughty\r\nscorn he would hurl on his foes, was proof positive of his possession\r\nof that one attribute, irritability, almost universally ascribed to the\r\nvotaries of Parnassus and the Nine.\r\n\r\nMy noble captain, Jack Chase, rather patronised Lemsford, and he would\r\nstoutly take his part against scores of adversaries. Frequently,\r\ninviting him up aloft into his top, he would beg him to recite some of\r\nhis verses; to which he would pay the most heedful attention, like\r\nMaecenas listening to Virgil, with a book of Aeneid in his hand. Taking\r\nthe liberty of a well-wisher, he would sometimes gently criticise the\r\npiece, suggesting a few immaterial alterations. And upon my word, noble\r\nJack, with his native-born good sense, taste, and humanity, was not ill\r\nqualified to play the true part of a _Quarterly Review_;—which is, to\r\ngive quarter at last, however severe the critique.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 1"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJQ3MFENWE9QH4GT9XM2M","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J19NC56FFGBCM2SWEZZY","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AMEARJ64EYY2JNF1C6A25","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:37.206Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:43.786Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}