Sir: My heart with pleasure filled when I saw that Riquarius quoted it
as I always want to do, "with rapture fills." While I realized it is the
height of presumption to think I could improve on Wordsworth, don't you
agree with me that rapture is more expressive than pleasure?
Jay Aye.
"Rapture" might be preferred for another reason: the accent falls on a
stronger syllable. Suppose George Meredith had used "pleasure" in his
lines--
"Lasting, too,
For souls not lent in usury,
The rapture of the forward view."
Every good poet has left lines that could be bettered for another ear.
Probably Wordsworth leads the list.
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