27 DECEMBER 1873, Page 14

ENGLISH SONNETS.

(TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR.")

you allow me, while thanking you for a most sug- gestive and elaborate review of my selection of sonnets, to answer one question put to me by the critic ?

"Why." he asks, "has Mr. Dennis given us no single sonnet of Hood's?" I reply, because I could not, having failed to obtain the requisite permission from the proprietors of Hood's poetry. The same reason will explain two or three more notable omissions, and also why, in transcribing the sonnets of Wordsworth, 1 have. followed the edition of 1827. In most instances, happily, the favour asked of copyright-owners was at once generously granted.-