1199. EBB to William Wordsworth
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 7, 44–45.
[London]
April 2. 1843–
My dear Mr Wordsworth,
I must take the liberty of thanking you both for the honor & kindness of the gift of your poem upon Grace Darling; [1] & of assuring you that no leaf ever dropped from the hand of the Prophet in a street of Damascus, which can have been received into a more reverent disciple’s hand. [2]
Grace Darling was worthy of your consecration, & of shining for ever & ever among the saints of Poetry–
I wish I were half as worthy of your kind attention to me– Only, if I were ... I might not perhaps feel myself quite so much obliged to you: and I would not exchange that pleasant feeling for a world of more vulgar dignities.
Yours most truly
Elizabeth B Barrett.
Publication: None traced.
Manuscript: Dove Cottage.
2. We cannot clarify this allusion. It has been suggested that it refers to the dropping of a page of the manuscript of the Koran, but we have found nothing to support this proposition.
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