Database of Poems

Back to results

Anticipation; or Tait's Magazine

1832: Representation of the People Acts

We are told that this poem is 'From a Poetical Epistle to Blackwood, in the Fife Herald'.  The poem references many figures in Scottish publishing in the 1830s, along with various politicians.  For instance, the poem references Timothy Tickler, a fictitious character who contributed to Blackwood's Magazine.  The poem begins by reflecting on the success of Blackwood's in attacking the Whigs, but it goes on to mock how weak the magazine has become and the fact that it cannot compete with the far superior tenets of Tait's Magazine (which was pro-Whig).  The poem repeatedly stresses that Blackwood's is now incapable of keeping Reform at bay, a cause which it had once helped to 'blight'.