Letter from William Wordsworth, Coleorton, to Lady Beaumont, 1807 May 21 : autograph manuscript signed.

Thanking Lady Beaumont for her interest in his Poems; acknowledging that he foresaw the opposition to the work; saying "It is impossible that any expectations can be lower than mine concerning the immediate effect of this little work upon what is called the Public. I do not here take into consideration the envy and malevolence, and all the bad passions which always stand in the way of a work of any merit from a living Poet; but merely think of the pure absolute honest ignorance, in which all worldlings of every rank and situation must be enveloped, with respect to the thoughts, feelings, and images on which the life of my Poems depends...It is an awful truth, that there neither is, nor can be, any genuine enjoyment of poetry among nineteen out of twenty of those persons who live, or wish to live, in the broad light of the world...;" asking her not to be troubled by the reception of his poems saying that he trusts to "...their destiny, to console the afflicted, to add sunshine to daylight by making the happy happier, to teach the young and the gracious of every age, to see, to think and feel, and therefore to become more actively and securely virtuous; this is their office, which I trust they will faithfully perform long after we (that is, all that is mortal of us) are mouldered in our graves;" discussing at length how he feels his poems should be judged and the inspirations for his work; saying he is pleased that Mrs. Fermor has begun reading "Moods of my own mind"; commenting on misprints in the text, the intention of his poems and explaining, at length and in detail, the meaning of one Sonnet [With Ships the Sea is sprinkled]; expressing his pleasure in knowing about two of his poems that Mrs. Fermor enjoyed; assuring her that her fears on his behalf over the "...condemnation they may at present incur from that portion of my contemporaries who are called the Public" should not cause her distress; saying "These people in the senseless hurry of their idle lives do not read books, they merely snatch a glance at them that they may talk about them. And even if this were not so, never forget what I believe was observed to you by Coleridge, that every great and original writer, in proportion as he is great or original, must himself create the taste by which he is to be relished; he must teach the art by which he is to be seen; this in a certain degree, even to all persons, however wise and pure their lives, and however unvitiated their taste; but for those who dip into books in order to give an opinion of them, or talk about them to take up an opinion - for this multitude of unhappy, and misguided, and misguiding beings, an entire regeneration must be produced; and if this be possible, it must be a word of time. To conclude, my ears are stone-dead to this idle buzz, and my flesh as insensible as iron to these petty stings; and after what I have said I am sure yours will be the same;" sending his regards to Sir George; referring, in a postscript, plans to see them in the summer.