Surely, if it rots, it must die, or have died.
Query. 'Flung to wither and to die.'
I am astonished at my own temerity. This is reversing the order of things; the pupil correcting his master. But, candidly speaking, I do think these two poems the most defective of any I ever saw of yours, which, usually, have been remarkably free from all angles on which the race of snarlers can lay hold.
From, &c. &c.,
Joseph Cottle."
Mr. Coleridge's reply to the preceding letter.
"Wednesday morning, 10 o'clock.
My dearest Cottle,
… 'Ill besped' is indeed a sad blotch; but after having tried at least a hundred ways, before I sent the Poem to you, and often since, I find it incurable. This first Poem is but a so so composition. I wonder I could have been so blinded by the ardour of recent composition, as to see anything in it.
Your remarks are perfectly just on the 'Allegorical lines,' except that, in this district, corn is as often cut with a scythe, as with a hook. However, for 'Scythesman' read Rustic. For 'poor fond thing' read foolish thing, and for 'flung to fade, and rot, and die,' read flung to wither and to die.[30]