[Added at foot of the first page:] N.B. Don't read that Q. Review—I will never look into another.
[Lamb continues his criticism of the 1815 edition of Wordsworth's Poems. The "Night Piece" begins—
The sky is overcast.
The stanza from "Yarrow Visited" is quoted on page 557. The poem followed "Yarrow Unvisited" in the volume. The one exquisite verse in "Yarrow Unvisited" first ran:—
Your cottage seems a bower of bliss,
It promises protection
To studious ease and generous cares
And every chaste affection.
Wordsworth altered to—
A covert for protection
Of tender thoughts that nestle there,
The brood of chaste affection.
"Poor Susan" had in the 1800 version ended thus:—
Poor Outcast! return—to receive thee once more
The house of thy Father will open its door,
And thou once again, in thy plain russet gown,
May'st hear the thrush sing from a tree of its own.
Wordsworth expunged this stanza in the 1815 edition. "Fast volumes of vapour" should be "Bright volumes of vapour." For the Old Thief see "The Two Thieves."