The scorn that "patient merit of the unworthy takes"; the misery of the courtier doomed "in suing long to bide";--the ills that assail the scholar's life, "Toil, envy, want, the Patron and the jail," are standing subjects for the moralist and the satirist.

In Crabbe's poem we have the story of a young man, the son of a "Borough-burgess," who, showing some real promise as a poet, and having been able to render the local Squire some service by his verses at election time, is invited in return to pay a visit of some weeks at the Squire's country-seat.

The Squire has vaguely undertaken to find some congenial post for the young scholar, whose ideas and ambitions are much in advance of those entertained for him in his home.

The young man has a most agreeable time with his new friends.

He lives for the while with every refinement about him, and the Squire's daughter, a young lady of the type of Lady Clara Vere de Vere, evidently enjoys the opportunity of breaking a country heart for pastime, "ere she goes to town." For after a while the family leave for their mansion in London, the Squire at parting once more impressing on his young guest that he will not forget him.