Robert Southey to Charles Watkin Williams Wynn, 23-27 April, 1796 'The Poetry of Spain & Portugal wants taste, & generally, feeling. I should have thought Camoens deficient in feelings if I had only read his Lusiad — but the Sonnets of Camoens are very beautiful. those given by Hayley in his notes to the Essay on Epic P. tho among the best are but a wretched specimen to the English reader. the translations are detestable — & the originals so printed as to be unintelligible. I bought some ballads in Spain in remembrance of Rio Verde — but they prove bad enough. but six months after my return I will tell you more.'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Southey Print: Book
Robert Southey to Charles Watkin Williams Wynn, 23-27 April, 1796 'The Poetry of Spain & Portugal wants taste, & generally, feeling. I should have thought Camoens deficient in feelings if I had only read his Lusiad — but the Sonnets of Camoens are very beautiful. those given by Hayley in his notes to the Essay on Epic P. tho among the best are but a wretched specimen to the English reader. the translations are detestable — & the originals so printed as to be unintelligible. I bought some ballads in Spain in remembrance of Rio Verde — but they prove bad enough. but six months after my return I will tell you more.'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Southey Print: Book
Robert Southey to Grosvenor Charles Bedford, 1-7 January, 1797: '...the view is bounded by the accursed smoke of London. methinks like Camoens I could dub it Babylon & write lamentations for the “Sion” of my birth place, having like him no reason to regret the past [words scored out] except that it is not the present. it is the country I want. a field thistle is to me worth all the flowers of Covent Garden.'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Southey Print: Book
