Your faithful friend,
W. WORDSWORTH.[135]

88. _'Specimens of English Sonnets:' Criticisms, &c._

LETTER TO THE REV. ALEXANDER DYCE.

[No date to this Letter, but written in 1833.]

MY DEAR SIR,

The dedication[136] which you propose I shall esteem as an honour; nor
do I conceive upon what ground, but an over-scrupulous modesty, I could
object to it.

[135] _Memoirs_, ii. 277-8.

[136] I had requested permission to dedicate a little book, _Specimens
of English Sonnets_, to Mr. W. _A.D._

Be assured that Mr. Southey will not have the slightest unwillingness to
your making any use you think proper of his 'Memoir of Bampfylde:' I
shall not fail to mention the subject to him upon the first opportunity.

You propose to give specimens of the best _sonnet-writers_ in our
language. May I ask if by this be meant a selection of the _best
sonnets, best_ both as to _kind_ and _degree_? A sonnet may be excellent
in its kind, but that kind of very inferior interest to one of a higher
order, though not perhaps in every minute particular quite so well
executed, and from the pen of a writer of inferior genius. It should
seem that the best rule to follow would be, first, to pitch upon the
sonnets which are best _both_ in kind and perfectness of execution, and,
next, those which, although of a humbler quality, are admirable for the
finish and happiness of the execution, taking care to exclude all those
which have not one or other of these recommendations, however striking
they might be, as characteristic of the age in which the author lived,
or some peculiarity of his manner. The 10th sonnet of Donne, beginning
'Death, be not proud,' is so eminently characteristic of his manner, and
at the same time so weighty in the thought, and vigorous in the
expression, that I would entreat you to insert it, though to modern
taste it may be repulsive, quaint, and laboured. There are two sonnets
of Russell, which, in all probability, you may have noticed, 'Could,
then, the babes,' and the one upon Philoctetes, the last six lines of
which are first-rate. Southey's 'Sonnet to Winter' pleases me much; but,
above all, among modern writers, that of Sir Egerton Brydges, upon 'Echo
and Silence.' Miss Williams's 'Sonnet upon Twilight' is pleasing; that
upon 'Hope' of great merit.

Do you mean to have a short preface upon the construction of the sonnet?
Though I have written so ma