SD1310.1. Diary Entry of Eliza Allen Southall

Addendum to The Brownings’ Correspondence, vol. 14.

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23 February 1847

The truth is, that I was once fonder of reading than of almost any thing else. …

Elizabeth Barrett’s deep thoughts, rich poetical ideas, and thoroughly satisfactory principles, when they appear, make her a great favorite with me and with us all. Even her fictions, though so well told, are not wrought up, or full of romantic incident; but the tale is plainly used merely as a thread on which to string rich thoughts and lessons. How much this is the case with the “Lay of the Brown Rosary!” Even the sad pieces, such as the “Lost Bower,” end generally with a gleam of light, not from a mere meteor of passion or sentiment, but from a day-spring of Christian hope. Perhaps I am too partial, for I know that taste, which in me is particularly gratified with E. Barrett, will influence our judgment.

Text: Eliza Southall, Portions of the Diary, Letters and Other Remains (Birmingham, 1855), pp. 89–92.

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