who have ridiculed Wordsworth in his simplistic mode, Catherine Maria Fanshawe (who was one of the earliest) stands out by virtue of her ability to make you see why the poet should have written in this way: There is a river clear and fair
'Tis neither broad nor narrow;
It winds a little here and there--
It winds about like any hare;
And then it holds as straight a course
As, on the turnpike road, a horse,
Or through the air an arrow.
That ought to be utterly plodding. But it is curiously soothing as well, even idyllic, like a homely but serene Dutch landscape. And somehow all the more idyllic for being comic.
from The Wall Street Journal: Book Excerpt: 'The Oxford Book of Parodies'
then The Times Literary Supplement: Parody, the vile art
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