I have read the Review, dear Miss Barrett, & now, woe is me! I send my book blushingly to you, as one of those “little books that your shelves groan under, & you groan over, less metaphorically”– “Poet in a parenthesis”–! Verily the cap fits—& yet not so—it is but the power that is wanting, not the will or the devotedness—had that been vouchsafed me, I should not have stood, as I now do, amongst that ‘vile species,’ you break upon the wheel of your satire– But you will not “groan” over my verses, notwithstanding—
[6 January 1844]. Westwood, Thomas to Browning, Elizabeth Barrett.
Date - Search
1844-01-06
Author
Westwood, Thomas
Recipient
Browning, Elizabeth Barrett
Letter Text
I have read the Review, dear Miss Barrett, & now, woe is me! I send my book blushingly to you, as one of those “little books that your shelves groan under, & you groan over, less metaphorically”– “Poet in a parenthesis”–! Verily the cap fits—& yet not so—it is but the power that is wanting, not the will or the devotedness—had that been vouchsafed me, I should not have stood, as I now do, amongst that ‘vile species,’ you break upon the wheel of your satire– But you will not “groan” over my verses, notwithstanding—