should have no objection to borrow 500 and without acknowledging) still
in a Sonnet--a personal poem--I do not "ask my friend the aiding verse."
I would not wrong your feelings by proposing any improvements (did I
think myself capable of suggesting 'em) in such personal poems as "Thou
bleedest my poor heart"--'od so, I am catchd, I have already done
it--but that simile I propose abridging would not change the feeling or
introduce any alien ones. Do you understand me? In the 28th however, and
in the "Sigh" and that composed at Clevedon, things that come from the
heart direct, not by the medium of the fancy, I would not suggest an
alteration. When my blank verse is finished, or any long fancy poems,
"_propino tibi alterandum, cut-up-andum, abridg-andum_," just what you
will with it--but spare my EWE LAMBS! That to Mrs. Siddons now you were
welcome to improve, if it had been worth it. But I say unto you again,
Col., spare my EWE LAMBS. I must confess were they mine I should omit,
in Editione secunda, Effusions 2-3, because satiric, and below the
dignity of the poet of Religious Musings, 5-7, half of the 8th, that
written in early Youth, as far as "Thousand eyes,"--tho' I part not
unreluctantly with that lively line "Chaste Joyance dancing in her
bright-blue eyes" and one or 2 more just thereabouts. But I would
substitute for it that sweet poem called "Recollection" in the 5th No.
of the Watchman, better I think than the remainder of this poem, tho'
not differing materially. As the poem now stands it looks altogether
confused. And do not omit those lines upon the "early blossom," in your
6th No. of the Watchman, and I would omit the 10th Effusion--or what
would do better, alter and improve the last 4 lines. In fact, I suppose
if they were mine I should _not_ omit 'em. But your verse is for the
most part so exquisite, that I like not to see aught of meaner matter
mixed with it. Forgive my petulance and often, I fear, ill founded
criticisms, and forgive me that I have, by this time, made your eyes and
head ach with my long letter. But I cannot forego hastily the pleasure