12. 11.73.
Dear Sir,
Towards the end of July last I sent you rough notes on the Minor Poems and Fragments, excepting the Triumph of Life. On this I herewith enclose some remarks. It is a Poem which has always been a particular favourite of mine, and suggests questions which nothing less than an essay could indicate. Here I touch only on the text. It has been pure pleasure to follow again the unique terza rima; liquid, sinuous, continuous, a full-flowing river of music and light.
I think with a piece left, unfinished like this you might venture upon obvious metrical rectifications, which do not affect the sense, just as you have ventured upon obvious grammatical ditto.
I hope you enjoyed your Italian holiday. I thoroughly enjoyed Navarre; but was recalled too soon because Republicans and Monarchists wouldn't kill each other wholesale, the unfeeling wretches!
Yours truly,
James Thomson.
