Critical Reactions

Abstract

Hostility to Wordsworth began with the publication of his poems in 1807, principally from Francis Jeffrey in The Edinburgh Review. Jeffrey’s onslaught on the ‘new school of poetry’ (the Lake poets, who had little in common) was long sustained. He conceded that the popularity of Lyrical Ballads testified to their merit, but stressed their ‘childishness, conceit, and affectation’, and claimed that the new volumes confirmed the justice of his previous censure. He hoped that the public would pronounce against the present publication, and gave reasons for accelerating such a verdict. The diction lacked elegance, dignity, and melody; and the subjects (including a leech-gatherer) were ridiculous. He found lines of philosophic weight in ‘Ode to Duty’ ‘utterly without meaning’, ‘Intimations of Immortality’ beyond all doubt ‘the most illegible and unintelligible’ poem in the collection, and ‘Alice Fell’ trash, an insult to public taste.