SOURCE: Introduction to Revolution and Romanticism, 1789-1834, Woodstock Books, 1994, np.

Below, Wordsworth praises Baillie 's poetry and explores its strong influence on William Wordsworth's lyrical ballads.

Among the many volumes of the period amiably titled Poems on various subjects, Poems on several occasions, Joanna Baillie's 1790 collection has a curmudgeonly air: POEMS; wherein it is attempted to describe CERTAIN VIEWS OF NATURE and of RUSTIC MANNERS; also, to point out, in some instances, the different influence which the same circumstances produce on different characters. All these instructions on one octavo titlepage. We are being buttonholed—told how to read and what to look for—by an author who doesn't even put her name to the book. It was to be the same with Baillie's second publication eight years later: A SERIES OF PLAYS: in which it is attempted to delineate THE STRONGER PASSIONS OF THE MIND, each passion being...