i liked some and disliked others

If I continued with my theme of replacing books of the bible with works of poetry instead, I would use mostly Wadsworth to replace Proverbs. Many of these poems are cautionary tales encouraging kindness and empathy, and the rest are extolling the virtues of nature. No, going out into nature isn’t one of the commandments, but it should have been, I think we would all be better for it. Wadsworth encourages “nature baths,” a spiritual bathing in nature to cleanse the soul of the stresses of urban life. It’s a recommendation all should heed.

Some of the particularly potent verses that I feel could be good replacements for the “O Heed you Mother” rhetoric of Proverbs:
One impulse from a vernal wood
May teach you more of man;
Of moral evil and of good,
Than all the sages can.

Enough of science and of art;
Close up these barren leaves;
Come forth, and bring with you a heart
That watches and receives.

O reader! had you in your mind
Such stores as silent thought can bring,
O gentle reader! you would find
A tale in every thing.

yes yes yes

the thorn was my favorite but also read:
advertisement 1798
preface 1802
The idiot boy
Simon Lee
Tintern Abbey
The leach gatherer
forsaken indian woman

Even though I'm prejudiced generally in favor of classics I did not care overall for this collection and its style. I liked a few of the poems (Rime of the Ancient Mariner, The Nightingale, Tinturn Abbey), but I liked Rime a lot less than when I first read it in elementary school. I think the "asides" and forced rhyming got to me.

I picked this up because it was suggested by Hardcore Literature (Benjamin McEvoy) as a great complement to Middlemarch. I'll set it aside and try to come back to it later.

The original 1798 version without the preface. Certainly consolidates, in my mind, Coleridge as the better poet among the two.