In January 1801 Charles Lamb thus wrote to Wordsworth of his
Old Cumberland Beggar
:
"It appears to me a fault that the instructions conveyed in it are too direct, and like a lecture: they don't slide into the mind of the reader while he is imagining no such matter,"
At the same time he refers to
"the delicate and curious feeling in the wish of the Beggar that he may have about him the melody of birds, although he hears them not."
(
The Letters of Charles Lamb
, edited by Alfred Ainger, vol. i. p. 163.)—Ed.