1924. EBB to Thomas Westwood
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 10, 230–231.
50 Wimpole Street.
May 22. 1845.
Ever since saturday, my dear Mr Westwood, when I found such a brave bold gust of ‘North Wind’ in the Athenæum, [1] I have been meaning to write to you & tell you of it——while you perhaps have thought, on your side, that it has given me cold somewhere in the feelings, so that for the present I am thrown out of sympathy, & incapable of pleasure in a friend’s successes. But no!—it is not true indeed. I have had much to do—& much more to think of—but indifferent to your poems’s merit, I have not been—& here I am to say, .. or swear so,—if the last shd be necessary. And I must tell you that the poem appears to me moreover, nearly, if not quite, (& I lean to the ‘quite’) your best production. It has more significance as a whole, & far more force than any previous work I have seen from your hand. So, you see, that after the pleasure of seeing your name at all, I had the double pleasure of seeing it so worthily—you make progress, & get strength. Only you shd not have called your ballad the ‘North Wind’—because that is too vague & inexpressive. It shd have been ‘The Baron’s Curse’ .. or .. something better, .. ‘The Baron’s revenge’ .. or you might find another title of still more claim. The ‘North Wind’ I protest against. It’s quite enough to hear it all day at the window——when it is’nt the east– Dont you know the worth of a ‘title’ beyond the Red Book? To all books, red, or white, it is of equal consequence I ween.
And do you know, I shd like to hear from you (.. when you write again) whether you thought me right or wrong in what I said of Mr Woods’ illustrations of my Brown Rosary, [2] —& whether I spoke gratefully enough my sense of the honour offered to the poem. I have not heard from you since—& certainly I shd like to be better in his eyes & yours than a cold critic,—who is nothing better than a monster when critically analyzed.
Did you persevere with “Sordello?” [3] I hope so– Be sure that we may all learn (as poets) much & deeply from it,—for the writer speaks true oracles. When you have read it through, then read for relaxation & recompense the last Bell & Pomegranate by the same poet, .. his ‘Colombe’s Birthday,’ which is exquisite. Only, ‘Pippa Passes,[’] I lean to, or kneel to, with the deepest reverence. Wordsworth has been in town & is gone. Tennyson is still here. He likes London, I hear, & hates Cheltenham where he resides with his family—& he smokes pipe after pipe, & does not mean to write any more poems. Are we to sing a requiem?
Believe me faithfully yours always
E B Barrett–
Publication: LEBB, I, 264 (in part).
Manuscript: British Library.
1. In the issue for 17 May 1845 (no. 916, p. 488).
3. EBB had recommended RB’s poem to Westwood in letter 1881.
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