ΤΟ WILLIAM WORDSWORTH, ESQ. THIS SELECTION OF SONNETS IS INSCRIBED, WITH MUCH RESPECT AND ESTEEM, BY ALEXANDER DYCE. THE Sonnet, first introduced into our language by Lord Surrey, continued to be a favourite species of writing with most of the eminent men who adorned our poetic annals, till the Restoration; but, when that event had wrought a change in the character of our literature, it experienced a long period of neglect. French models became the study of our poets; and from the time of Milton* to that of Edwards, about the middle of the eighteenth century, this kind of composition may be considered as entirely abandoned. From the time of Edwards to the present,-our taste for Italian poetry having revived, the Sonnet has been rendered popular in this country by a series of distinguished writers. * Though Milton's Sonnets were not all published, they were all composed, before the Restoration. |