ABSTRACT
We spoke of Wordsworth and Coleridge. Lamb, to my surprise, asserted Coleridge to be the greater man. He preferred the Mariner to anything Wordsworth had written. Wordsworth, he thought, is narrow and confined in his views compared with Coleridge. He does not, like Shakespeare, become everything he pleases, but forces the reader to submit to his individual feelings. This, I observed, lies very much in the lyrical character, and Lamb concluded by expressing high admiration of Wordsworth. He had read many of his things with great pleasure indeed, especially the sonnets, which I had before spoken of as my favourites. Lamb also spoke in high praise of Hart-Leap Well as one of Wordsworth’s most exquisite pieces, but did not think highly of the Leech-gatherer . . .
