Database of Poems
Tasks for the Anti-Reformers
1832: Representation of the People Acts
Author: Anon [W. A.]
Publication: Edinburgh [Evening] Weekly Chronicle
Published: 11 June 1831
Place of publication: Edinburgh, Scotland
Publication type: Newspaper/Periodical
Featured individuals:
Henry Brougham (1778-1868)
Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey (1764-1845)
Joseph Hume (1777-1855)
Robert Peel (1788-1850)
No full copy of this poem is available.
Archive/Library: Central Library, Edinburgh
Classmark(s): fYAN E23 WC
Pages(s): 189
This satirical poem is spoken by one who hopes to 'stop the progress of the Bill'. The poem's first two stanzas ask an unnamed individual to prove their strength in various ways (for example, 'quench Etna with a cup of tea') to demonstrate that they can break the pro-reform movement. In the final stanza, the speaker asks this figure to manipulate some key pro-reformers: for instance, 'Make Hume forget his country's weal'. It also asks this figure to 'still woman's tongue', suggesting that women were influential in the pro-reform movement. There is no author attached to this poem, but the poem did previously appear in The Ayr Advertiser, where it is attributed to 'W. A.', on 24-05-1831.