down to page 157 to the end of the paragraph. If you admit these passages to be fine poetry, I wish much that you would justify me further by reading, out of the _second_ volume, the two poems called 'Laodamia' and 'Tintern Abbey' at page 172 and page 161. I will not ask you to read any more; but I dare say you will rush on of your own account, in which case there is a fine ode upon the 'Power of Sound' in the same volume. Wordsworth is a philosophical and Christian poet, with depths in his soul to which poor Byron could never reach. Do be candid. Nay, I need not say so, because you always are, as I am, Your ever affectionate ELIZABETH B. BARRETT. [Footnote 69: It was this picture that called forth the sonnet, 'On a Portrait of Wordsworth by B.R. Haydon' (_Poetical Works_, iii. 62), alluded to in the next letter.] [Footnote 70: The following is the letter from Wordsworth which gave such pleasure to Miss Barrett, and which she treasured among her papers for the rest of her life. Two slips of the pen have been corrected between brackets. 'Rydal Mount: Oct. 26, '42. 'Dear Miss Barrett,--Through our common friend Mr. Haydon I have received a sonnet which his portrait of me suggested. I should have thanked you sooner for that effusion of a feeling towards myself, with which I am much gratified, but I have been absent from home and much occupied. 'The conception of your sonnet is in full accordance with the painter's intended work, and the expression vigorous; yet the word "ebb," though I do not myself object to it, nor wish to have it altered, will I fear prove obscure to nine readers out of ten. "A vision free And noble, Haydon, hath thine art released." Owing to the want of inflections in our language the construction here is obscure. Would it not be a little [better] thus? I was going to write a small change in the order of the words, but I find it would not remove the objection. The verse, as I take it, would be somewhat clearer thus, if you would tolerate the redundant syllable: "By a vision free And noble, Haydon, is thine art released." I had the gratification of receiving, a good while ago, two copies of a volume of your writing, which I have read with much pleasure, and beg that the thanks which I charged a friend to offer may be repeated [to] you. 'It grieved me much to hear from Mr. Kenyon that your health is so much deranged. But for that cause I should have presumed to call upon you when I was in London last spring. 'With every good wish, I remain, dear Miss Barrett, your much obliged 'WM. WORDSWORTH.' [Postmark: Ambleside, Oct. 28, 1842.] It may be added that although Miss Barrett altered the passage criticised by the great poet, she did not accept his amendment. It now runs 'A noble vision free Our Haydon's hand has flung out from the mist. _To H.S. Boyd_ December 4, 1842.