Two objections apply to this line. The word scythesman, for a short poem, is insufferably rough; and furthermore requires the inhalation of a good breath, before it can be pronounced; besides which, as the second objection, by connecting sheaves with scythesman, it shows that the scythe is cutting wheat, whereas, wheat is cut with a hook or sickle. If my agricultural knowledge be correct, barley and oats are cut with a scythe, but these grains are not put into sheaves. Had you not better substitute rustic, for scythesman? The first line in the third stanza is not happy. The spondee, in a compound word, sometimes gives a favourable emphasis; but to my taste, rarely, when it is formed of a double epithet. It has the appearance of labour, like tugging against a hill. Would not 'foolish' be simpler and better than 'poor fond?' I have one other objection, and that, unfortunately, is in the last line. 'Flung to fade, and rot, and die!' Surely, if it rots, it must die, or have died. Query. 'Flung to wither and to die.' I am astonished at my own temerity. This is reversing the order of things; the pupil correcting his master. But, candidly speaking, I do think these two poems the most defective of any I ever saw of yours, which, usually, have been remarkably free from all angles on which the race of snarlers can lay hold. From, &c. &c., Joseph Cottle." Mr. Coleridge's reply to the preceding letter. "Wednesday morning, 10 o'clock. My dearest Cottle, ... 'Ill besped' is indeed a sad blotch; but after having tried at least a hundred ways, before I sent the Poem to you, and often since, I find it incurable. This first Poem is but a so so composition. I wonder I could have been so blinded by the ardour of recent composition, as to see anything in it. Your remarks are _perfectly just_ on the 'Allegorical lines,' except that, in this district, corn is as often cut with a scythe, as with a hook. However, for '_Scythesman_' read _Rustic_. For '_poor fond thing_' read _foolish thing_, and for '_flung to fade, and rot, and die_,' read _flung to wither and to die_.[30] * * * * * Milton (the carrier) waits impatiently. S. T. C." Having once inquired of Mr. Coleridge something respecting a nicety in hexameters, he asked for a sheet of paper, and wrote the following. These hexameters appear in the last edition of Mr. C.'s Poems, though in a less correct form, and without the condensed and well-expressed preliminary remarks. Two new lines are here also added.