Elizabeth Barrett to Allan Park Paton, 18 January 1845: 'I take shame to myself in the confession, that the first newspaper you sent to me, was sent in vain for the verses -- inasmuch as, being occupied at the moment, & aware of the usual worthlessness of poetical insertions in journals, I was satisfied with barely running my eye down the four sides & with coming to a hasty conclusion that the paper had been sent to me in mistake for another [...] [italics]This[end italics] time, I have read & considered!, & I may assure you that it shall never happen to me again to throw aside unread, any poem with the signature "Heather" in connection with it. -- The poem which I [italics]have[end italics] read, is, to my mind & ear, full of promise [...] there is unity in the conception [...] What I least like, in the way of [italics]execution[end italics] [...] is the burden of the whole. Where the metre changes, some sense of artifice in construction & defect in harmony seems to force itself on the ear.'