Wordsworth by Samuel Taylor Coleridge

I have often wished that the first two books of the Excursion had been / published separately, under the name of "The Deserted Cottage. " They would / have formed, what indeed they are, one of the most beautiful poems in the / language.

Can dialogues in verse be defended? I cannot but think that a great / philosophical poet ought always to teach the reader himself as from / himself. A poem does not admit argumentation, though it does admit / development of thought. In prose there may be a difference; though I must / confess that, even in Plato and Cicero, I am always vexed that the authors / do not say what they have to say at once in their own persons. The / introductions and little urbanities are, to be sure, very delightful in / their way; I would not lose them; but I have no admiration for the practice / of ventriloquizing through another man's mouth.