s from
the original. G.

* * * * *

'THE RECLUSE; YOUNG ROSCIUS, &c.

_Letter to Sir George H. Beaumont, Bart_. Grasmere, May 1st. 1805.

MY DEAR SIR GEORGE,

I have wished to write to you every day this long time, but I have also
had another wish, which has interfered to prevent me; I mean the wish to
resume my poetical labours: time was stealing away fast from me, and
nothing done, and my mind still seeming unfit to do anything. At first I
had a strong impulse to write a poem that should record my brother's
virtues, and be worthy of his memory. I began to give vent to my
feelings, with this view, but I was overpowered by my subject, and could
not proceed. I composed much, but it is all lost except a few lines, as
it came from me in such a torrent that I was unable to remember it. I
could not hold the pen myself, and the subject was such that I could not
employ Mrs. Wordsworth or my sister as my amanuensis. This work must
therefore rest awhile till I am something calmer; I shall, however,
never be at peace till, as far as in me lies, I have done justice to my
departed brother's memory. His heroic death (the particulars of which I
have now accurately collected from several of the survivors) exacts this
from me, and still more his singularly interesting character, and
virtuous and innocent life.

Unable to proceed with this work, I turned my thoughts again to the Poem
on my own Life, and you will be glad to hear that I have added 300 lines
to it in the course of last week. Two books more will conclude it. It
will be not much less than 9000 lines,--not hundred but thousand lines
long,--an alarming length! and a thing unprecedented in literary history
that a man should talk so much about himself. It is not self-conceit, as
you will know well, that has induced me to do this, but real humility. I
began the work because I was unprepared to treat any more arduous
subject, and diffident of my own powers. Here, at least, I hoped that to
a certain degree I should be sure of succeeding, as I had nothing to do
but describe what I had felt and thought; therefore could not easily be
bewildered. This might certainly have been done in narrower compass by a
man of more address; but I have done my best. If, when the work shall be
finished, it appears to the judicious to have redundancies, they shall
be lopped off, if possible; but this is very difficult to do, when a man
has written wi