ABSTRACT
Wordsworth, Peter Bell (1819) and The Waggoner (1819); Literary and Statistical Magazine, III (Aug. 1819), 314-319. The review opens with an exploration of the relationship of Wordsworth to Cowley, Donne, and the metaphysical poets. An illustration of how rapidly some reviews were written (and how little revised they were before going to press) occurs when the reviewer says “the tale of Peter Bell may be told in three sentences” (p. 316) and then is unable to tell it nearly so succinctly.
