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C. WHITTINGHAM, TOOKS COURT,

CHANCERY LANE.

ΤΟ

WILLIAM WORDSWORTH, ESQ.

THIS SELECTION OF SONNETS

IS INSCRIBED,

WITH MUCH RESPECT AND ESTEEM,

BY

ALEXANDER DYCE.

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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.

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