[Footnote 2: The _Memoirs_ say in 1793, but the following MS. letter of 1792 speaks of them as already published.] "The scenes which he describes have been viewed with a poet's eye, and are portrayed with a poet's pencil; and the poems contain, many passages exquisitely beautiful; but they also contain many faults, the chief of which are obscurity and a too frequent use of some particular expressions and uncommon words; for instance, _moveless_, which he applies in a sense, if not new, at least different from, its ordinary one. By 'moveless,' when applied to the swan, he means that sort of motion which is smooth without agitation; it is a very beautiful epithet, but ought to have been cautiously used. The word _viewless_ also is introduced far too often. I regret exceedingly that he did not submit the works to the inspection of some friend before their publication, and he also joins with me in this regret." These poems show a careful and minute observation of nature, but their versification--still reminding us of the imitators of Pope-- has little originality or charm. They attracted the admiration of Coleridge, but had no further success. At Racedown Wordsworth finished _Guilt and Sorrow_, a poem gloomy in tone and written mainly in his period of depression and unrest,--and wrote a tragedy called _The Borderers_, of which only a few lines show any promise of future excellence. He then wrote _The Ruined Cottage_, now incorporated in the Fist Book of the _Excursion_. This poem, on a subject thoroughly suited to his powers, was his first work of merit; and Coleridge, who visited the quiet household in June 1797, pronounces this poem "superior, I hesitate not to aver, to anything in our language which in any way resembles it." In July 1797 the Wordsworths removed to Alfoxden, a large house in Somersetshire, near Netherstowey, where Coleridge was at that time living. Here Wordsworth added to his income by taking as pupil a young boy, the hero of the trifling poem _Anecdote for Fathers_, a son of Mr. Basil Montagu; and here he composed many of his smaller pieces. He has described the origin of the _Ancient Mariner_ and the _Lyrical Ballads_ in a well-known passage, part of which I must here repeat:--