What happened when Thomas told William Wordsworth about his new wife?

Mrs Thomas de Quincey

‘Not quite the right sort’

The report of the poet with a Phd

In snobbery, the Lakeland straight man

William Wordsworth.

‘What are you thinking, giving a ring

To a milkmaid? Affairs are one thing,

Marriage something else,’ he said, pacing

Around the room on elegant feet.

‘I mean, just think where her hands

Have been,’ he protested, dabbing his

Troubled forehead with a finely starched

Handkerchief, wringing it out

Onto the ice-sleek polished floor,

Watching the sweat drip, flicking

A lock of hair gone stray back

To the left, then right again.

De Quincey paced the room around

With his eyes, surprised by the

Reaction of his friend, so keen to

Lend his voice to the meek and poor,

To champion the cause

Of the idiots and the mad, then

Thomas became glad, because what he had

What he had raised mountains

Stopped streams in their tracks

And made his blood run hotter

Than the sky. He had his life

And would let the others write.

(c) Becky Deans 2013