SOURCE: "Richard Monckton Milnes and Hartley Coleridge," in A New Spirit of the Age, Oxford University Press, London, 1907, pp. 187-96.

Although it was not publicly known at the time, Elizabeth Barrett collaborated extensively with Horne in the production of his collection of essays on contemporary poets. Evidence from their correspondence indicates that the essay from which this excerpt is taken was primarily the work of Barrett. In the following, originally published in 1844, Home describes Milnes' poetic style, calling it subdued, graceful, lyrical, and spiritual.

The poetry of Richard Monckton Milnes has met with considerable praise in many quarters, yet hardly as much as it deserves; and it has met with peculiar dispraise, more than it deserves, either in kind or degree. A common case enough. . . .

Mr. Milnes has been accused of a want of the divine fire of imagination and passion; and he has, moreover, been accused of...