MOORE THOMAS: (1779-1852)

MOORE THOMAS: (1779-1852) Irish Poet and Songwriter. Best remembered for his lyrics of The Last Rose of Summer. Together with John Murray, they burned Lord Byron´s memoirs after his death. Autograph Poem signed, Thomas Moore, one page, 8vo, Sloperton Cottage, 1826. The page has most probably been removed from an autograph album. Moore writes at the head `by my friend Sam. Rogers´ and reproduces below a poem by Samuel Rogers stating in part `Child of the Sun! pursue thy rapturous flight, - Mingling with her thou lovest in fields of light; - And where the flowers of paradise unfold, … And such is man; soon from his cell of clay - To burst a seraph in the blaze of day!´. The letter bears beneath the poem an attractively drawn and painted butterfly. To the verso an unsigned written text in Italian, referring to ''Divo Paganini'', Bath 1832. The left edge is slightly trimmed after having been removed from its original book. Overall age wear, small foxing stains, with few tears, two larger to the fold, none affecting the text or signature. G £250-350 Byron gave his memoirs to Thomas Moore with instruction to publish them after his death as a literary executor. Moore would say that he was persuaded to destroy Byron's memoirs at the behest of Byron's family because of their content. Moore did, however, edit and publish Letters and Journals of Lord Byron, with Notices of his Life in 1830, six years after Byron's death in Greece. Samuel Rogers (1763-1855) English Poet. The poem Moore has transcribed in the present letter is To the Butterfly.