day;" then "but soon the scathing lightning," to "blighted land." Then
"Sublime of thought" to "his bosom glows." Then "but soon upon _his_
poor unsheltered head Did Penury her sickly Mildew shed, and soon are
fled the charms of vernal Grace, and Joy's wild gleams that lightend
o'er his face!" Then "Youth of tumultuous soul" to "sigh" as before. The
rest may all stand down to "gaze upon the waves below." What follows now
may come next, as detached verses, suggested by the Monody, rather than
a part of it. They are indeed in themselves very sweet "And we at sober
eve would round thee throng, Hanging enraptured on thy stately song"--in
particular perhaps. If I am obscure you may understand me by counting
lines. I have proposed omitting 24 lines. I feel that thus comprest it
would gain energy, but think it most likely you will not agree with me,
for who shall go about to bring opinions to the Bed of Procrustes and
introduce among the Sons of Men a monotony of identical feelings. I only
propose with diffidence. Reject, you, if you please, with as little
remorse as you would the color of a coat or the pattern of a buckle
where our fancies differ'd. The lines "Friend to the friendless" &c.
which you may think "rudely disbranched" from the Chatterton will patch
in with the Man of Ross, where they were once quite at Home, with 2 more
which I recollect "and o'er the dowried virgin's snowy cheek bad bridal
love suffuse his blushes meek!" very beautiful. The Pixies is a perfect
thing, and so are the lines on the spring, page 28. The Epitaph on an
Infant, like a Jack of lanthorn, has danced about (or like Dr. Forster's
scholars) out of the Morn Chron into the Watchman, and thence back into
your Collection. It is very pretty, and you seem to think so, but, may
be o'er looked its chief merit, that of filling up a whole page. I had
once deemd Sonnets of unrivalled use that way, but your epitaphs, I
find, are the more diffuse. Edmund still holds its place among your best
verses. "Ah! fair delights" to "roses round" in your Poem called Absence
recall (none more forcibly) to my mind the tones in which _you recited