This book, now for the first time printed in extenso (a
very noble passage from it found place in that prose advertisement to
The Excursion), is the great novelty of this latest edition of
Wordsworth's poetic works. It was well worth adding to the poet's
great bequest to English literature. The true student of his work,
who has formulated for himself what he supposes to be the leading
characteristics [104] of Wordsworth's genius, will feel, we think, a
lively interest in putting them to test by the many and various
striking passages in what is there presented for the first time.
17th February 1889
VII. MR. GOSSE'S POEMS
On Viol and Flute. By Edmund Gosse.
[107] PERHAPS no age of literature, certainly no age of literature in
England, has been so rich as ours in excellent secondary poetry; and
it is with our poetry (in a measure) as with our architecture,
constrained by the nature of the case to be imitative. Our
generation, quite reasonably, is not very proud of its architectural
creations; confesses that it knows too much--knows, but cannot do.
And yet we could name certain modern churches in London, for
instance, to which posterity may well look back puzzled.
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