Author: Collett, James
Biography:
COLLETT, James (fl 1825-26)
No public records have been located that can be linked with any certainty to the author of A Garland of Wild Flowers (1825) and La Bagatelle (1826). The Preface to La Bagatelle gives his address as 8 Fisher Street, Red Lion Square, London. One poem in the same volume, “The Last Day of School,” was “written at the Academy of the Rev. P. Moody, Redman’s Row, Mile End.” The Preface gives his reason for publishing as a want of other employment. Some of the poems, including “The Poet to his Cat,” are about his lack of money: “My poor faithful Tabby, it grieves me to see/ That my cupboard contains not a morsel for thee.” However, other poems show that he enjoyed membership in a convivial club, “Society of Votaries of Comus.” A surprisingly lengthy review in the Literary Gazette observes that the author seems “excessively subject to love-fits.” (Literary Gazette 4 Mar. 1826, 132-34) SR