I should like to know what were the three or four vols. on
Italian poetry which you mentioned in a former letter, and
which my book somewhat recalled to your mind. I was not
aware of any such extensive _English_ work on the subject.
Or do you perhaps mean Trucchi’s Italian _Dugento Poésie
inédite?_ I am sincerely delighted at your rare interest in
what I have sent you--both the translations, story, etc.--I
enclose three printed pieces meant for my volume but
omitted:--the ballad, because it deals trivially with a base
amour (it was written _very_ early) and is therefore really
reprehensible to some extent; the Shakspeare sonnet, because
of its incongruity with the rest of the poems, and also
because of the insult (however jocose) to the worshipful
body of tailors; and the political sonnet for reasons which
are plain enough, though the date at which I wrote it (not
without feeling) involves now a prophetic value. In a MS.
vol. I have a sonnet (1871) _After the German Subjugation of
France_, which enforces the prophecy by its fulfilment. In
this MS. vol. are a few pieces which were the only ones I
copied in doubt as to their admission when I printed the
poems, but none of which did I admit. One day I ‘ll send it
for you to look at. It contains a few sonnets bearing on
public matters, but only a few. Tell me what you think on
reading my things. All you said in your letter of this
morning was very grateful to me. I have a fair amount by me
in the way of later MS. which I may shew you some day when
we meet. Meanwhile I feel that your energies are already in
full swing--work coming on the heels of work--and that your
time cannot long be deferred as regards your place as a
writer.