1226.5. John Kenyon to EBB
Addendum to The Brownings’ Correspondence, vol. 7.
4 H. P.
[ca. May 1843]
Dear E.B.B.
I do not forget the book—trusting that you will not forget the Dog Contract.
I have been applying Cowper’s line to that nasal sound of our American friends–
“Hark to the twanging horn neath yonder bridge.[”]
—Will you ever forgive me for all my teazing about that poem.
—Our aspiration comprehends but–
Do you dislike this—it brings out the sense to me–
The obsolete word—the very word—is at hand if you dare to use it– You know the authorities better than I do—in my stupendous ignorance! but judge—
truer–
I think God’s Song is not soother—
Than the tales we tell each other—
—Let a reader refuse “soother” and we tell him he does not know English—!
—Go to dust as other mortals–
I do not away with that “other”– Those were not quite mortal hands—“Whence the thunder did prevail–
Your torment
JK.
Ecco—
—Go to dust, Ye brief Immortals!
Address, on integral page: Miss E. B. Barrett—.
Publication: None traced.
Manuscript: Armstrong Browning Library.
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