VIII. Wordsworth. DIVERSE POEMS. IT is difficult within a short compass to give anything but a brief bird's eye view of a writer so diffuse and elaborate as Wordsworth. His popularity has steadily waxed, whilst that of contemporary poets who thought themselves far his superiors, has waned; and although often voted dull by many who purchase his works without reading them, his poems have been treasured by thousands who have read them, without always being able to buy them. Wordsworth has taken this strong hold of our age, because he is deeply representative of the inextinguishable spirituality of the nineteenth century. We may smile at a good deal which, to use his own words about another writer, "is neither interesting in itself, nor can lead to anything which is interesting,"—" Lines composed after reading the Newspaper," or "To Το |