Note 67 — LIFE OF LORD BYRON. (continued 3)
Reading edition
In this practice of dating his juvenile poems he followed the example of Milton, who (says Johnson), "by affixing the dates to his first compositions, a boast of which the learned Politian had given him an example, seems to commend the earliness of his own compositions to the notice of posterity."
The following trifle, written also by him in 1807, has never, as far as I know, appeared in print:—
"EPITAPH ON JOHN ADAMS, OF SOUTHWELL, A CARRIER, "WHO DIED OF DRUNKENNESS.
"John Adams lies here, of the parish of Southwell, A Carrier, who carried his can to his mouth well; He carried so much, and he carried so fast, He could carry no more—so was carried at last; For, the liquor he drank being too much for one, He could not carry off,—so he 's now carri-on.
"B——, Sept. 1807."