O sweet and strange it seems to me, that ere this day is done

The voice, that now is speaking, may be beyond the sun

For ever and for ever with those just souls and

true

55

And what is life, that we should moan? why make we such ado?

For ever and for ever, all in a blessed home—
And there to wait a little while till you and Effie

come

To lie within the light of God, as I lie upon your breast

And the wicked cease from troubling, and the weary

are at rest.

60

Lord Tennyson

* 90 *

A FAREWELL

FLOW down, cold rivulet, to the sea,
Thy tribute wave deliver:

No more by thee my steps shall be,
For ever and for ever.

Flow, softly flow, by lawn and lea,

5

A rivulet then a river:

No where by thee my steps shall be,

For ever and for ever.

a tribute wave, water which the rivulet, little stream, brings to

the sea.

But here will sigh thine alder tree,

And here thine aspen shiver; And here by thee will hum the bee, For ever and for ever.

A thousand suns will stream on thee,
A thousand moons will quiver;
But not by thee my steps shall be,
For ever and for ever.

Lord Tennyson

14 quiver, shake, tremble

ΙΟ

15

End of Second Part

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NOTES:

MAINLY HISTORICAL AND CRITICAL

NO.

I

This rough but spirited poem, with a very few more, give Drayton a claim to remembrance, which his long and laborious chronicles in rhyme have failed to secure.

Agincourt was fought October 25, 1415. A history of England, and Shakespeare's Henry the Fifth should be read with this poem.

Line 48, The lilies are the Fleur-de-Lys, long the arms
of France, as the Lions are of England.

2 Southey, like Drayton, has left little work vividly
penetrated with the spirit of poetry, in comparison with
his many pages of skilful and industrious manufacture.
This piece has something of the merit shown in Words-
worth's tales: but it wants Wordsworth's exquisiteness
3 Simple as Lucy Gray seems, a mere narrative of what
'has been and may be again,' yet every detail in it is
marked by the deepest and purest 'ideal' character.
Hence it is not strictly a pathetic poem, pathetic as the
situation is. So far as this element has a place, Words-
worth asks that we should feel for the parents, rather
than for the child she is painted as a creature, 'made
one with Nature' in her death, not less than in her life.
5 This little poem, again, within, its sphere, in ideal per-
fection rivals the most perfect work of the world's greatest
lyrical poets.-Readers who smile, are invited to try to
'do likewise.'

12

Within its range, the Ancient Mariner is 'alone in its glory'-but the crown must have been given to Christabel, had Coleridge completed that poem, and completed it in the style of the two parts which we have.

The Memoirs of Wordsworth give an interesting narrative of the mode in which the Ancient Mariner was written: The dream of a friend, according to Coleridge, was the foundation; but by far the greatest part of the story is due to the poet's mind. The introduction of the Albatross, and the working of the ship by the dead sailors, were motives suggested by Wordsworth, who also supplied a very few lines, as the friends walked together over the lovely Quantock Hills in the autumn of 1797.Such were the external circumstances under which this masterpiece was created: it is pleasant to know them; but all that made it such is the poet's secret. 14 Line 5, It is not clear whether by fairy-flax the poet means graceful and fairylike, or whether it be a local name for some species of the plant.

PAGE NO.

48

49

16 Glencoe, the 'Valley of Weeping,' is a savage glen on

17

the north-western coast of Argyllshire. The murder of the Macdonalds who were settled in it, by the Earls of Breadalbane and Argyll, and (most prominently) Sir John Dalrymple of Stair, has been told by Macaulay with equal historical force and judicial fairness.

Line 12, Marvell belonged to the Puritan' party; and the Emigrants here intended are persons of that party flying from ecclesiastical pressure during the first half of the seventeenth century. Lines 35, 36 present a curious example of anti-climax'; but the poem, as a whole, is very sweet and original.

51 18,19 Noble, if rough, pieces of work. In Bunyan's, there may be an echo of Shakespeare's Under the greenwood tree, No. 31.

23 Very full explanatory notes have been subjoined to this
and to other poems written in local dialect, in hope that
children may thus be tempted to conquer (to their own
great advantage) the sense of difficulty and repulsion which
the first sight of a vocabulary, differing slightly from
the common literary form, never fails to rouse.
24 After the capture of Madrid by Napoleon, Sir J. Moore
retreated before Soult and Ney, the French com-
manders, to Corunna, in North-west Spain, and was
killed whilst covering the embarkation of his troops.
His tomb, built by Ney, bears this inscription-
'John Moore, leader of the English armies, slain in
battle, 1809.'

25

29

Founded on a real story of the English campaign in
China, 1860.

Eminently characteristic of Scott in its music. It has
an airy freedom and freshness, a certain magical quality;
one might fancy that the actual voice of the wildwood
was audible in it.

34 The Thanksgiving, and No. 36, are delightful pictures of English country life two centuries ago.

44 There is something of the sublime in the severe and pathetic simplicity of this little piece.

45 Perhaps no poem in this collection is more delicately fancied, more exquisitely finished. By placing the description of the Fawn in a young girl's mouth, Marvell has legitimated that abundance of imaginative hyperbole' to which he is always partial; he makes us feel it quite natural that the maiden's favourite should be whiter than milk, sweeter than sugar, lilies without, roses within.' The poet's imagination is, as it were, justified in its seeming extravagance by the intensity and unity with which it invests the poem, and the reader's pleasure is proportionately intensified.

The verdict of Time is not always just and conclusive, even after many years. Undeserved contemporary fame is sometimes traditionally prolonged; sometimes, though less often, the crown, fairly won, is withheld for centuries. Of this latter injustice, Marvell is an example. We cannot place him among our greater gods' of song; yet, within his own sphere, no one has more decided originality, more vivid imagination, more attractive and enduring charm.

་

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84

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86

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III

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118

124

133

46 This poem (inserted on the ground of its naïveté and
originality) is one of a series described as by Charles and
Mary Lamb. The style seems to warrant its ascription
to the latter.

48 An old fragment, completed with exquisite skill by Burns.
His version of No. 49 is not equally successful. It
would, indeed, hardly be possible to improve such a little
masterpiece of music, tenderness, and simplicity.
50 A justly-famous piece of 'Cavalier' poetry: Lovelace
was brought twice to prison by his devotion to Charles I.
Thames (line 10), by a classical form of metaphor, is used
for water.

51 Compare the note on Nos. 48, 49:-These poems may
(perhaps) a little exceed the boundary line laid down in
the Preface; but the Editor did not know how to omit them.
55 Our collection has much loftier pieces of poetry than
Cowper's Cat, but none in which poetical skill is more

consummate.

65 Sir Hyde Parker commanded in this battle, fought
in April 1801 in order to detach Denmark from the
Northern coalition which hindered the singlehanded
attempt of England to curb Napoleon Bonaparte. Nel-
son's spirit of heroic gallantry never blazed higher than
here. Riou was killed in command of a squadron.
68 The insertion of these grandly-simple, almost Homeric
stanzas is due to the suggestion of Mr W. E. Gladstone :-
of No. 79, equally fine in its wild intensity of imagina-
tion, to Mr R. Browning. The Cyclops were the assist-
ants of Vulcan, the god of the forge, in old mythology:
Jove was the king of all.

70 The vivid incident (A.D. 627), characteristic in every way
of the English mind, upon which the poem is founded, is
told by the old English historian Bede,

74 The subjects chosen by Vaughan and Herbert have mostly
placed their poems beyond the limits of this selection;
but they will be found treasures for ever' by readers
who find more attraction in the matter than in the manner
of poetry. Line 17 refers either to the imagined car-
buncle, or to the brief luminosity which the diamond
retains after exposure to sunshine.
80 For wealth of condensed thought and imagery, fused into
one equable stream of golden song by intense fire of
genius, the Editor knows no poem superior to this Elegy,-
none quite equal. Nor has the difficulty of speaking well
on common topics, without exaggeration yet with unfail-
ing freshness and originality, been ever met with greater
success. Line after line has the perfection of a flawless
jewel it is hard to find a word that could have been
spared, or changed for the better. This condensation,
however, has injured the clearness of the poem: the
specific gravity of the gem, if we may pursue the image,
has diminished its translucent qualities. Many notes
have hence been added ;-the useful but prosaic task of
paraphrase is best left to the reader, who may make one
for his benefit, and then burn it for his pleasure.

82 Shelley's masterpiece, in the shorter form of lyric (as, if
such a judgment be permissible, all things considered,
the Editor would hold the Skylark,) follows Gray's: