ABSTRACT
We have not any society except the Wordsworth’s – they are very unusual characters – indeed Miss Wordsworth I much like – but her Brother is not a man after my own heart – I always feel myself depressed in his society –
b. To Thomas Manning, 31 March 1801
With regard to the second volume of the lyrical ballads I think you considerably underrate it – though, to confess the truth, I have felt myself disappointed in the perusal of its contents – I admire the simplicity, the pure feelings, & the delicate discrimination of natural objects, which is to be found in some of them – but their total [want absence deleted] nakedness in point of imagination – their puerile minuteness – their cold accuracy, (unillumed & uninvigorated by the deliciously blending light & shades of poetic feelings,) disgust, & weary me – . . .
