On the subject of using sugar, etc., I will write you a long and serious letter. This grieves me more than you [imagine]. I hope I shall be able by severe and unadorned reasoning to convince you you are wrong.
Your remarks on my poems are, I think, just in general; there is a rage and affectation of double epithets. "Unshuddered, unaghasted" is, indeed, _truly_ ridiculous. But why so violent against _metaphysics_ in poetry? Is not Akenside's a metaphysical poem? Perhaps you do not like Akenside? Well, but _I do_, and so do a great many others. Why pass an act of _uniformity_ against poets? I received a letter from a very sensible friend abusing love verses; another blaming the introduction of politics, "as wider from true poetry than the equator from the poles." "Some for each" is my motto. That poetry pleases which interests. My religious poetry interests the _religious_, who read it with rapture. Why? Because it awakes in them all the associations connected with a love of future existence, etc. A very dear friend of mine,[115] who is, in my opinion, the best poet of the age (I will send you his poem when published), thinks that the lines from 364 to 375 and from 403 to 428 the best in the volume,--indeed, worth all the rest. And this man is a republican, and, at least, a _semi_-atheist. Why do you object to "shadowy of truth"? It is, I acknowledge, a Grecism, but, I think, an elegant one. Your remarks on the della-crusca place of emphasis are just in part. Where we wish to point out the _thing_, and the _quality_ is mentioned merely as a decoration, this mode of emphasis is indeed absurd; therefore, I very patiently give up to critical vengeance "_high_ tree," "_sore_ wounds," and "_rough_ rock;" but when you wish to dwell chiefly on the _quality_ rather than the _thing_, then this mode is proper, and, indeed, is used in common conversation. Who says good _man_? Therefore, "_big_ soul," "_cold_ earth," "_dark_ womb," and "_flamy_ child" are all right, and introduce a variety into the versification, [which is] an advantage where you can attain it without any sacrifice of sense. As to harmony, it is all _association_. Milton is _harmonious_ to me, and I absolutely nauseate Darwin's poems.