I would boldly say at once, that these sonnets,
while they each fix the attention upon some important sentiment,
separately considered, do, at the same time, collectively make a poem on
the subject of civil liberty and national independence, which, either
for simplicity of style or grandeur of moral sentiment, is, alas! likely
to have few parallels in the poetry of the present day. Again, turn to
the 'Moods of my own Mind.' There is scarcely a poem here of above
thirty lines, and very trifling these poems will appear to many; but,
omitting to speak of them individually, do they not, taken
collectively, fix the attention upon a subject eminently poetical,
viz., the interest which objects in Nature derive from the predominance
of certain affections, more or less permanent, more or less capable of
salutary renewal in the mind of the being contemplating these objects?
This is poetic, and essentially poetic. And why? Because it is creative.

But I am wasting words, for it is nothing more than you know; and if
said to those for whom it is intended, it would not be understood.

I see by your last letter, that Mrs. Fermor has entered into the spirit
of these 'Moods of my own Mind.' Your transcript from her letter gave me
the greatest pleasure; but I must say that even she has something yet to
receive from me. I say this with confidence, from her thinking that I
have fallen below myself in the sonnet, beginning,

With ships the sea was sprinkled far and nigh.

As to the other which she objects to, I will only observe, that there is
a misprint in the last line but two,

And _though_ this wilderness,

for

And _through_ this wilderness,

that makes it unintelligible. This latter sonnet, for many reasons
(though I do not abandon it), I will not now speak of; but upon the
other, I could say something important in conversation, and will attempt
now to illustrate it by a comment, which, I feel, will be inadequate to
convey my meaning. There is scarcely one of my poems which does not aim
to direct the attention to some moral sentiment, or to some general
principle, or law of thought, or of our intellectual constitution. For
instance, in the present case, who is there that has not felt that the
mind can have no rest among a multitude of objects, of which it either
cannot make one whole, or from which it cannot single out one individual
whereupon may be concentrated the attention, divided among or distracted
by a mu