tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21999805.post5048409016754659417..comments2024-03-28T19:56:32.848-05:00Comments on Anecdotal Evidence: 'The Race of Sonnet Writers and Complainers'Patrick Kurphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08436175583386298032noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21999805.post-54450846935515808622017-11-17T05:20:06.767-06:002017-11-17T05:20:06.767-06:00I have to say that, of Lamb's contemporaries, ...I have to say that, of Lamb's contemporaries, Lord Byron makes me laugh. His comments on Wordsworth et al at the beginning of 'Don Juan' for example. Byron was notably sane too whereas Lamb sounds a little 'bipolar' which might explain his being institutionalised in that manner.<br /><br />"Thou shalt believe in Milton, Dryden, Pope;<br />Thou shalt not set up Wordsworth, Coleridge, Southey; <br />Because the first is crazed beyond all hope, <br />The second drunk, the third so quaint and mouthey."<br /><br />and this from the dedication to 'Don Juan" <br /><br />You—Gentlemen! by dint of long seclusion <br /> "From better company, have kept your own <br />At Keswick, and, through still continu'd fusion <br /> Of one another's minds, at last have grown <br />To deem as a most logical conclusion, <br /> That Poesy has wreaths for you alone: <br />There is a narrowness in such a notion, <br />Which makes me wish you'd change your lakes for Ocean."<br /><br />https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43828/don-juan-dedication <br /><br />Of course, you will be familiar with all of this.Powerintheland2https://www.blogger.com/profile/11393851717345264919noreply@blogger.com