Now Tasso's is a religious subject, and in my opinion, a most happy one; but I am confidently of opinion that the _movement_ of Tasso's poem rarely corresponds with the essential character of the subject; nor do I think it possible that written in _stanzas_ it should.

The celestial movement cannot, I think, be kept up, if the sense is to be broken in that despotic manner at the close of every eight lines.

Spenser's stanza is infinitely finer than the _ottaca rhima_, but even Spenser's will not allow the epic movement as exhibited by Homer, Virgil, and Milton.

How noble is the first paragraph of the _Aeneid_ in point of sound, compared with the first stanza of the _Jerusalem Delivered_! The one winds with the majesty of the Conscript Fathers entering the Senate House in solemn procession; and the other has the pace of a set of recruits shuffling on the drill-ground, and receiving from the adjutant or drill-serjeant the commands to halt at every ten or twenty steps.

Farewell.
Affectionately yours, W.WORDSWORTH.[79] [79] _Memoirs_, ii.