PREFACE.
ix
principles and rules of modern poetry, has already been laid before the public[1], I thought it due to the dignity of the newly-endowed school of poets, that, like the ancients, they should have (if I may so express myself) a poetical grammar, in which the pupil may learn the elements of his art.
It were to be expected, that my verse should have been itself an illustration of the rules which it prescribes, after the manner of Longinus, who "is himself the great sublime he draws." But (as the reader will find in the fifth part of the poem), not being able to root entirely from my mind a lingering fondness for the models upon which my youthful judgment was formed, I thought, that the
- ↑ Preface to Mr. Wordsworth's Lyrical Ballads.
