SOURCE: "Partners in Poetry," in The First Romantics, Longmans, Green and Co., 1948, pp. 159-194.

In the following essay, Elwin examines the work of Wordsworth and Coleridge in the context of their personal and literary relationships with each other and with their circle of relatives and acquaintances, including Southey, Dorothy Wordsworth, and Charles Lamb.

1. Suspects at Alfoxden

Wordsworth left Coleridge at Stowey with an invitation to visit him at Racedown. As soon as Coleridge had finally corrected his poems to his satisfaction, and sent them with Lamb's and Lloyd's to Cottle for the printer, he set off. On Sundays he frequently preached in the Unitarian chapels at Bridgwater and Taunton, usually walking and never accepting a fee for his sermons. On Sunday 4th June 1797 he preached at Bridgwater, breakfasted next morning at Taunton, and then walked the twenty miles to Racedown. The distance was nothing to him. Later in...