On Himself

Here sleeps at length poor Col., and without screaming-- Who died as he had always lived, a-dreaming: Shot dead, while sleeping, by the Gout within-- Alone, and all unknown, at E'nbro' in an Inn.

'Composed in my sleep for myself while dreaming that I was dying' . . . at the Black Bull, Edinburgh, Tuesday, Sept. 13, 1803. Sent in a letter to Thomas Wedgwood, Sept. 16, 1803. First published Cottle's Reminiscences, 1848, p. 467. First collected in 1893.

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