the experience of reading in Britain, from 1450 to 1945...

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William Henry Lyttelton : [probably] A Monody to the Memory of lady Lyttelton. Written in the Year 1747

'I read several elegies today, two of Shore the one on the death of his wife, the other on the loss of his child. His tale of woe is expressed in the most moving and natural fashion, and though you greatly admire the poet yet you must yield to the soft and sympathising composition of the widowed Husband and childless father. It is not so when you read Lord Littleton's complaint on his Lady's death, the poetry is beautiful but less natural, less moving. He boasts with his grief, and indulges himself some digressions which show his extended knowledge but are not natural, I think, to a mind wholly occupied with despair'.

Century: 1700-1799     Reader/Listener/Group: Eugenia Wynne      Print: Unknown

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