annot he included in
one given stanza, so that another whole stanza is added, not
unfrequently, for the sake of matter which would naturally include
itself in a very few lines.

If Gray's plan be adopted, there is not time to become acquainted with
the arrangement, and to recognise with pleasure the recurrence of the
movement.

Be so good as to let me know where you found most difficulty in
following me. The passage which I most suspect of being misunderstood
is,

'And thus is missed the sole true glory;'

and the passage, where I doubt most about the reasonableness of
expecting that the reader should follow me in the luxuriance of the
imagery and the language, is the one that describes, under so many
metaphors, the spreading of the news of the Waterloo victory over the
globe. Tell me if this displeased you.

Do you know who reviewed 'The White Doe,' in the _Quarterly_? After
having asserted that Mr. W. uses his words without any regard to their
sense, the writer says, that on no other principle can he explain that
Emily is _always_ called 'the consecrated Emily.' Now, the name Emily
occurs just fifteen times in the poem; and out of these fifteen, the
epithet is attached to it _once_, and that for the express purpose of
recalling the scene in which she had been consecrated by her brother's
solemn adjuration, that she would fulfil her destiny, and become a soul,

'By force of sorrows high
Uplifted to the purest sky
Of undisturbed mortality.'

The point upon which the whole moral interest of the piece hinges, when
that speech is closed, occurs in this line,

'He kissed the consecrated maid;'

and to bring back this to the reader, I repeated the epithet.

The service I have lately rendered to Burns' genius[77] will one day be
performed to mine. The quotations, also, are printed with the most
culpable neglect of correctness: there are lines turned into nonsense.
Too much of this. Farewell!

Believe me affectionately yours,
W. WORDSWORTH.[78]

[77] See his 'Letter to a Friend of Burns.'

[78] _Memoirs_, ii. 60-1.

_47. Of Poems in Stanzas_.

LETTER TO ROBERT SOUTHEY.

DEAR SOUTHEY,

* * * * *

My opinion in respect to _epic poetry_ is much the same as the critic
whom Lucien Buonaparte has quoted in his preface. _Epic_ poetry, of the
highest class, requires in the first place an action eminently
influen