24 AUGUST 1889, Page 18

" IDLERS IN THE LAND."

[TO THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."]

SIR,—In the Spectator of August 3rd, p. 140, you say :—" Have

not our best poets, as Mr. Lowell says, all been idlers in the land' ? " These words are Wordsworth's. The last stanza but one. of " A Poet's Epitaph " is as follows :--

" Bat he is weak ; both Man and Boy, Hath been an idler in the land ; Contented if he might enjoy

The things which others understand."

—I am, Sir, Sze.,