Henry Kirke White

Wordsworth talked at ease, having confidence in his audience.... He spoke of Kirke White. Both he and Rough agreed in considering him as a man of more talents than genius, and that the great correctness of his early writings was a symptom unpromising as to his future works. He would probably have been rather a man of great learning than a great poet. He would not have been more than a Southey, said Rough. "And that would have been nothing after all," said Wordsworth," — "when speaking of the highest excellence," he added. He however spoke of afterwards of the "genius" of Southey.