_Of the Thanksgiving Ode and 'White Doe of Rylston.'_ LETTER TO ROBERT SOUTHEY.
1816.
MY DEAR SOUTHEY, I am much of your mind in respect to my Ode.

Had it been a hymn, uttering the sentiments of a _multitude_, a _stanza_ would have been indispensable.

But though I have called it a 'Thanksgiving Ode,' strictly speaking it is not so, but a poem, composed, or supposed to be composed, on the morning of the thanksgiving, uttering the sentiments of an _individual_ upon that occasion.

It is a _dramatised ejaculation_; and this, if any thing can, must excuse the irregular frame of the metre.

In respect to a _stanza_ for a grand subject designed to be treated comprehensively, there are great objections.