Letter/Extract 8

STC to William Wordsworth: Ratzeburg, Dec. 10th, 1798.

[STC responds to the lines from "There was a boy" which had been sent to him in a letter from Dorothy and William]

I observed, I remember, that the "fingers woven," &c., only puzzled me; and though I liked the twelve or fourteen first lines very well, yet I like the remainder much better. Well, now I have read them again, they are very beautiful, and leave an affecting impression. That Uncertain heaven received Into the bosom of the steady lake, I should have recognised any where; and had I met these lines running wild in the deserts of Arabia, I should have instantly screamed out "Wordsworth!" (CL I, 452-453).