To John Galen Howard
Effet de Mer,
Monaco, February 10, 1913.
Thank you so much for “Grasmere”, which is truly “a fructual stirp of that high dedicant,” W. W.1.The wetness (which you render so vividly) frightens me, however, who have fled to the Riviera from the fog and mire of Florence to try to out-stirp a catarrh. Without question, you have the afflatus and the courage of poetry: it is remarkable in these days. And I like your rhyme better than your blank verse!
G. Santayana
From The Letters of George Santayana: Book Two, 1910-1920. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2001.
Location of manuscript: The Bancroft Library, University of California at Berkeley.