More’s Work as Literature

Abstract

Southey wrote of “Psychozoia”: “There is perhaps no other poem in existence which has so little that is good in it, if it has anything good.” ¹ Coleridge commented: “Southey must have wearied himself out with the poem, till the mists from its swamps and stagnants had spread over its flowery plots and bowers.” ² Southey on reflection agreed: “I have not done full justice to him as a poet. Strange and sometimes uncouth as he is, there are lines and passages of the highest poetry and most exquisite beauty.” ³ And so began Henry More’s literary reputation.