The Open University | Study at the OU | About the OU | Research at the OU | Search the OU Listen to this page | Accessibility
Elizabeth Barrrett to Lady Margaret Cocks, mid-May 1837: 'I am very much obliged by your kindness in allowing me to read the MS dramatic poems -- it seems to me that the character of your writing is not sufficiently concentrated & passionate for tragic poetry -- and that the moral beauty of gentle & tender & holy feeling is not eminent enough with glaring light & angular shadow, to constitute of itself the dramatic. Such a moral beauty -- & it pervades what you write -- is however a better & happier thing than dramatic excellence.'