[Alaric Alexander Watts, poet and journalist.] Holograph poem ('Alaric A. Watts') titled 'To Octavia | The Eighth daughter of John Larking Esq late of Clare Hall Kent, on the completion of her sixth year.'

4pp., 4to. On a bifolium. In fair condition, on lightly aged and worn paper, with stub from mount still adhering. The poem consists of 84 lines, arranged in seven twelve-line stanzas. It begins: 'Full many a gloomy month had past, | On flagging wing, regardless by - | Unremarked by aught - save grief since last | I gazed upon thy bright blue eye, | And bade my Lyre pour forth for thee | Its strains of wildest minstrelsy!' The fourth line in the fourth stanza, 'For blessings on thy future years', has been deleted and replaced with 'To save thee from affliction's tears'. In 1823 the poem was reprinted in John Platt's 'Female Mentor' from the 'Monthly Magazine'. The date of the first printing has not been established. It was reprinted in 1824 in Watts's 'Poetical Sketches'.