Soon after the commencement of this month, the Editor of the Cambridge Intelligencer () requested me, by Letter, to furnish him with some Lines for the last day of this Year. I promised him that I would make the attempt; but, almost immediately after, a rheumatic complaint seized on my head, and continued to prevent the possibility of poetic composition till within the last three days. So in the course of the last three days the following Ode was produced. In general, when an Author informs the Public that his production was struck off in a great hurry, he offers an insult, not an excuse. But I trust that the present case is an exception, and that the peculiar circumstances, which obliged me to write with such unusual rapidity, give a propriety to my professions of it () For me to discuss the ''literary'' merits of this hasty composition, were idle and presumptuous () I am more anxious, lest the ''moral'' spirit of the Ode should be mistaken. You, I am sure, will not fail to recollect, that among the Ancients, the Bard and the Prophet were one and the same character; and you ''know'', that although I prophesy curses, I pray fervently for blessings.〔Letter to Thomas Poole 11 December 1796〕