Poem 147.

Perhaps the noblest stanzas in our language.

Poem 148.

stoure: dust-storm; braw: smart.

Poem 149.

scaith: hurt; tent: guard; steer: molest.

Poem 151.

drumlie: muddy; birk: birch.

Poem 152.

greet: cry; daurna: dare not.—There can hardly exist a poem more truly tragic in the highest sense than this: nor, except Sappho, has any Poetess known to the Editor equalled it in excellence.

Poem 153.

fou: merry with drink; coost: carried; unco skeigh: very proud; gart: forced; abeigh: aside; Ailsa craig: a rock in the Firth of Clyde; grat his een bleert: cried till his eyes were bleared; lowpin: leaping; linn: waterfall; sair: sore; smoor'd: smothered; crouse and canty: blythe and gay.

Poem 154.

Burns justly named this "one of the most beautiful songs in the Scots or any other language." One verse, interpolated by Beattie, is here omitted:—it contains two good lines, but is quite out of harmony with the original poem.

Bigonet: little cap, probably altered from beguinette; thraw: twist; caller: fresh.

Poem 155.

airts: quarters; row: roll; shaw: small wood in a hollow, spinney; knowes: knolls.

Poem 156.

jo: sweetheart; brent: smooth; pow: head.

Poem 157.

leal: faithful; fain: happy.

Poem 158.

Henry VI. founded Eton.

Poem 161.

The Editor knows no Sonnet more remarkable than this, which, with 162, records Cowper's gratitude to the Lady whose affectionate care for many years gave what sweetness he could enjoy to a life radically wretched. Petrarch's sonnets have a more ethereal grace and a more perfect finish; Shakespeare's more passion; Milton's stand supreme in stateliness, Wordsworth's in depth and delicacy. But Cowper's unites with an exquisiteness in the turn of thought which the ancients would have called Irony, an intensity of pathetic tenderness peculiar to his loving and ingenuous nature. There is much mannerism, much that is unimportant or of now exhausted interest in his poems: but where he is great, it is with that elementary greatness which rests on the most universal human feelings. Cowper is our highest master in simple pathos.

Poem 163.

fancied green: cherished garden.

Poem 164.

Nothing except his surname appears recoverable with regard to the author of this truly noble poem: It should be noted as exhibiting a rare excellence,—the climax of simple sublimity.

It is a lesson of high instructiveness to examine the essential qualities which give first-rate poetical rank to lyrics such as "To-morrow" or "Sally in our Alley," when compared with poems written (if the phrase may be allowed) in keys so different as the subtle sweetness of Shelley, the grandeur of Gray and Milton, or the delightful Pastoralism of the Elizabethan verse. Intelligent readers will gain hence a clear understanding of the vast imaginative, range of Poetry;—through what wide oscillations the mind and the taste of a nation may pass;—how many are the roads which Truth and Nature open to Excellence.

Poem 166.

stout Cortez: History requires here BalbÓa: (A.T.) It may be noticed, that to find in Chapman's Homer the "pure serene" of the original, the reader must bring with him the imagination of the youthful poet;—he must be "a Greek himself," as Shelley finely said of Keats.

Poem 169.

The most tender and true of Byron's smaller poems.

Poem 170.

This poem, with 236, exemplifies the peculiar skill with which Scott employs proper names: nor is there a surer sign of high poetical genius.

Poem 191.

The Editor in this and in other instances has risked the addition (or the change) of a Title, that the aim of the verses following may be grasped more clearly and immediately.

Poem 198.

Nature's Eremite: refers to the fable of the Wandering Jew.—This beautiful sonnet was the last word of a poet deserving the title "marvellous boy" in a much higher sense than Chatterton. If the fulfilment may ever safely be prophesied from the promise, England appears to have lost in Keats one whose gifts in Poetry have rarely been surpassed. Shakespeare, Milton, and Wordsworth, had their lives been closed at twenty-five, would (so far as we know) have left poems of less excellence and hope than the youth who, from the petty school and the London surgery, passed at once to a place with them of "high collateral glory."

Poem 201.

It is impossible not to regret that Moore has written so little in this sweet and genuinely national style.

Poem 202.

A masterly example of Byron's command of strong thought and close reasoning in verse:—as the next is equally characteristic of Shelley's wayward intensity, and 204 of the dramatic power, the vital identification of the poet with other times and characters, in which Scott is second only to Shakespeare.

Poem 209.

Bonnivard, a Genevese, was imprisoned by the Duke of Savoy in Chillon on the lake of Geneva for his courageous defence of his country against the tyranny with which Piedmont threatened it during the first half of the seventeenth century. This noble Sonnet is worthy to stand near Milton's on the Vaudois massacre.

Poem 210.

Switzerland was usurped by the French under Napoleon in 1800: Venice in 1797 (211).

Poem 215.

This battle was fought Dec. 2, 1800, between the Austrians under Archduke John and the French under Moreau, in a forest near Munich. Hohen Linden means High Limetrees.

Poem 218.

After the capture of Madrid by Napoleon, Sir J. Moore retreated before Soult and Ney to Corunna, and was killed whilst covering the embarcation of his troops. His tomb, built by Ney, bears this inscription—"John Moore, leader of the English armies, slain in battle, 1809."

Poem 229.

The Mermaid was the club-house of Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, and other choice spirits of that age.

Poem 230.

Maisie: Mary. Scott has given us nothing more complete and lovely than this little song, which unites simplicity and dramatic power to a wild-wood music of the rarest quality. No moral is drawn, far less any conscious analysis of feeling attempted:—the pathetic meaning is left to be suggested by the mere presentiment of the situation. Inexperienced critics have often named this, which may be called the Homeric manner, superficial, from its apparent simple facility: but first-rate excellence in it (as shown here, in 196, 156, and 129) is in truth one of the least common triumphs of Poetry.—This style should be compared with what is not less perfect in its way, the searching out of inner feeling, the expression of hidden meanings, the revelation of the heart of Nature and of the Soul within the Soul,—the analytical method, in short,—most completely represented by Wordsworth and by Shelley.

Poem 234.

correi: covert on a hillside; Cumber: trouble.

Poem 235.

Two intermediate stanzas have been here omitted. They are very ingenious, but, of all poetical qualities, ingenuity is least in accordance with pathos.

Poem 243.

This poem has an exaltation and a glory, joined with an exquisiteness of expression, which place it in the highest rank amongst the many masterpieces of its illustrious Author.

Poem 252.

interlunar swoon: interval of the Moon's invisibility.

Poem 256.

Calpe: Gibraltar; Lofoden: the Maelstrom whirlpool off the N.-W. coast of Norway.

Poem 257.

This lovely poem refers here and there to a ballad by Hamilton on the subject better treated in 127 and 128.

Poem 268.

Arcturi: seemingly used for northern stars.

And wild roses, etc. Our language has no line modulated with more subtle sweetness. A good poet might have written And roses wild:—yet this slight change would disenchant the verse of its peculiar beauty.

Poem 270.

Ceres' daughter: Proserpine; God of Torment: Pluto.

Poem 271.

This impassioned address expresses Shelley's most rapt imaginations, and is the direct modern representative of the feeling which led the Greeks to the worship of Nature.

Poem 274.

The leading idea of this beautiful description of a day's landscape in Italy is expressed with an obscurity not unfrequent with its author. It appears to be,—On the voyage of life are many moments of pleasure, given by the sight of Nature, who has power to heal even the worldliness and the uncharity of man.

Amphitrite was daughter to Ocean.

Sun-girt City: It is difficult not to believe that the correct reading is Seagirt. Many of Shelley's poems appear to have been printed in England during his residence abroad: others were printed from his manuscripts after his death. Hence probably the text of no English Poet after 1660 contains so many errors. See the Note on No. 9.

Poem 275.

Maenad: a frenzied Nymph, attendant on Dionysus in the Greek mythology.

The sea-blooms, etc.: Plants under water sympathise with the seasons of the laud, and hence with the winds which affect them.

Poem 276.

Written soon after the death, by shipwreck, of Wordsworth's brother John. This Poem should be compared with Shelley's following it. Each is the most complete expression of the innermost spirit of his art given by these great Poets:—of that Idea which, as in the case of the true Painter (to quote the words of Reynolds), "subsists only in the mind: The sight never beheld it, nor has the hand expressed it; it is an idea residing in the breast of the artist, which he is always labouring to impart, and which he dies at last without imparting."

Poem 278.

Proteus represented the everlasting changes united with ever-recurrent sameness, of the Sea.

Poem 279.

the Royal Saint: Henry VI.