is so remarkable in this
Author.... I wish'd and recommended that some at least of the ornaments
of 'THE FARMER'S BOY' should be sketches of local scenery: knowing
how much more interesting they would have been, and how much more
appropriate to the Poem. In that recommendation I was not successful:
but I am glad, in this instance, to see a faithful and agreeable Sketch
of Honington-Green from a very young pencil[5]. It will be remember'd,
at a far remote Period, that the double Cottage at the end of the Green
was the Birth-place of the BLOOMFIELDS. It is still, (and may it yet be
long so) the habitation of their Mother: and has been repair'd lately
by ROBERT. And I much doubt whether any House or Green will see two such
Poets born of the same Parents.

THE CULPRIT is the next in this Collection, and I had not seen it, nor
was it written, when I saw the two first. They decided my Opinion; and
had no more appeared, they would have been publish'd alone; as they
abundantly deserved.

THE CULPRIT strikes me as an original and highly affecting Poem. The
very attempt to sketch the successive conflicting feelings of one thus
circumstanc'd is no common effort. And what compass of thought; what
energy of expression! ... I do not always admit the justness of the
arguments. But it is a Soliloquy in character: and in judging of it,
as in all pieces of representative Poetry (as Mr. DYER, in his lately
publish'd ESSAY has well term'd it) the imagin'd situation ought to be
consider'd. And it strikes me as closing with a true and aweful Pathos:
not often equall'd.

The YORKSHIRE DIP is, I think, the result of that active but melancholy
Fancy, which can travel far into views of Life and Nature from a slight
occasion. It has a mixture of the Sportive which deepens the impression
of it's melancholy Close. I could have wish'd, as I have said in a short
Note, the Conclusion had been otherwise. The sours of Life less offend
my Taste than its sweets delight it. But when I think what NATHANIEL
must have felt in passing through Life, I more respect the Chearfulness
and habitual Vigor of his Mind, than I am dispos'd to be out of humor
with occasional gloom.

LOVE'S TRIUMPH differs as much in manner as in subject from those which
precede it. Yet a vein of pensive and philosophic thought flows here
also. The SONG OF BALDWIN is well adapted to soothe the fears and the
discontents of Poverty: and to convince those who have not learnt it,
that we