• This morning—(No; for 'tis now past twelve,
• And, when that is past, I think we shelve
• Into another day)—I hoped to
• Have heard that Browning had been read thro'
• By Gabriel Charles Dante Rossetti:
• But, while on the stairs, loud fretted he
• With his strangled hope; for he had been
• Twice to Moxon's;—once with a loud din
• He had woken them last night of “I
• 10Want Browning,”—like small boys want taffy:
• But, as these little heathens appeal
• In vain, so do Early Christians feel
• That Unless they have very strong faith,—
• “Which, thro' repeated trials,” he saith,
• “Was considerably weakened.”
• “We have not got the book, but will send
• It,” they said, “in a very few days.”

• Dear Fred, I must cut this short: the rays
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• From my rushlight have quite a ghostly
• 20Look assumed,—as it doth mostly
• In my studio, but, ere I stop,
• Let me acquaint you that we must drop
• Our meeting, having not our great host,
• With whose poetry we should have dosed
• Our guests;—do not read dozed; for, altho'
• We do not expect them to do so,
• Some might without our countenance,
• As Manley does over a Scotch romance,—
• At least has over the two he's read.

• 30I forgot to say I went to bed
• After “ Our Guests” I had written.
• I had come home quite frost-bitten
• After being presented to
• Dukes, which was a fate I must rue
• For ever, he is whiskery and tall
• As the hairiest brush-wielder in Gaul:
• He studied—(let this comfort us)—
• Some time as cad to an omnibus;
• By which he saved money, and, by that, rose
• 40To the eminent painter he knows
• Himself to be; but, thro' much struggling
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• With different trades and much juggling
• In different trades, he acquired that
• Knowledge of nature that captures the flat
• Of a prize-holder in no time.

• I must finish this letter in rhyme
• By sending it, for I have no other;
• For which I deeply grieve, dear brother.

William Holman Hunt

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