Wordsworth's fourth publication, the _Poems_ (1807), included most of the pieces written after the first appearance of the _Lyrical Ballads_. It was likewise his first venture subsequent to the founding of the _Edinburgh Review_. Jeffrey had assailed the theories of the "Lake Poets" (and, incidentally, coined that unfortunate term) in the first number of the _Review_, in an article on Southey's _Thalaba_, and three years later (1805), in criticizing _Madoc_, he again expressed his views on the subject. Now came the first opportunity to deal with the recognized leader of the "Lakers"--the poet whose work most clearly illustrated the poetic theories that Jeffrey deemed pernicious.
The article here reprinted from the _Edinburgh Rev._, XI (214-231), of October, 1807, and Jeffrey's review of _The Excursion_, in _ibid._, XXIV (1-30), are perhaps the two most important critiques of their kind. No student of Wordsworth's theory of poetry, as set forth in his various prefaces, can afford to ignore either of these interesting discussions of the subject. (For details, see A.J. George's edition of the _Prefaces_ of Wordsworth, Gates' _Selections_ from Jeffrey, Beers' _Nineteenth Century Romanticism_, Hutchinson's edition of _Lyrical Ballads_, etc.) It was undoubtedly true that Jeffrey, although an able critic, failed to grasp the real significance of the new poetic movement, and to appreciate the influence wrought by the doctrines of the Lake Poets on modern conceptions of poetry. Yet he was far from wrong in many of his criticisms of Wordsworth. While deprecating the latter's theories, it is clear that Jeffrey regarded him as a poet of great power who was being led astray by his perverse practice. The popular conception of Jeffrey as a hectoring and blatant opponent of Wordsworth is not substantiated by the review. The impartial reader must agree with Jeffrey at many points, and if he will take the trouble to collate Jeffrey's quotations with the revised text of Wordsworth, he will learn that the poet did not disdain to take an occasional suggestion for the improvement of his verse.
We recognize Wordsworth to-day as the most unequal of English poets. There is little that is common to the inspired bard of _Tintern Abbey_, the _Immortality Ode_ and the nobler _Sonnets_, and the unsophisticated scribe of _Peter Bell_ and _The Idiot Boy_. Like Browning, he wrote too much to write well at all times, and if both poets were capable of the sublimest flights, they likewise descended to unimagined depths; but the fault of Wordsworth was perhaps the greater, because his bathos was the result of a deliberate and persistent attempt to enrich English poetry with prosaically versified incidents drawn at length from homely rural life.