The record-union., 1897-06-27
THE BIRDS OF TENNYSON.
A Springtime Study of the Poets
Themes of Spring.

Themes of Spring.
Ihe most striking feature of Ten
hySon'S references to nature is not only
thelr accuracy, but their complet eneSS.
Nothing, indeed, seems too small or in
significant for him to notice. A whole
arucle might almost be written ON his
treatment Of insects in his poetry, be-
ginning with 'the blue fly on the pane, -
winch moved the sneers of Lord Lyt-
ton.
The yellow banded bees" are, of
course, public property as a poetical
commonplace; but where else could we
nnd the chrysalis, cobwebs, the brilliant
array or the emperor-moth, the bur
mshed flies" of summer, the high
edbowed grigs that leap in summer
grasses the cockchafer Ga "buzzard-
clock" in picturesque dialecD, all laid
under contribution for poetry and
touched with new grace?
Boldest of all, perhaps, is the mention
of ''the blue woodlouse," which pro-
fessed readers of Tennyson will never
believe in the existence of till their eyes
have convinced them In the "Idylls''
we come across two such lowly subjects
of sinmle as the worm which draws in
the withered leaf and makes it earth -
and the insect in its caddis-stat is
compared to rough cloth worn over
armor. How daringly simple, how sure
of himself is the poet who can say that
Lancelot lin "Guinevere') plucks
Modred from the walls "as the garden
er's hand picks from the colewort a
green caterpillar!
The OWLS musical note, "Tu-whit, Tu-
who!" has made this family of noe
turnal revelers a favorite one with
poets. Coleridge somewhere claims the
credit of first using their cry in poetry,
and Tennyson has somewhat fancifully,
if prettily. played upon it in the second
of his little Songs to the OWL" the last
stanza of which runs:
Il would mock thy chaunt anew:
But l cannot mimick it;
Not whit of thy tuwhoo, y
Thee to WOO to thy tuwhit -
Thee to WOO to thy tuwhit
With lengthen'd loud halloo,
Tuwhoo. towhit, tuwhit. towhoo-o-."
Coleridge was inaccurate, as often, in
his claim, for Shakespeare had preced-
ed him, and Tennyson's First Song to
the OWl' is clearly modelled after that
at the end of Loves Labor Lost, -
where "Hiens, winter" is maintained
by the oWl'':
When roasted crabs hiss in the bowl
Then nightly sings the staring owl,
Tu-who;
Tu-whit, tu-who, a merry note"
Next comes the bird which with the
lark we may fancy divides our poet s
especial love; it is mentioned all over
his work. Who can forget the exquisite
swallow-song of The Princess? p
20 Swallow Swallow, flying, flying South
Fly to her, and fall upon her gilded caves,
And tell her, tell her, what tell to thee
o Swallow, Swallow, if 1 could follow, and
And ,cheep and twitter twenty million
loves.
Oh, tell her, Swallow, that thy brood is
Say to her. do but wanton in the South,
But in the North long since my nest is
made.
Q Swallow, flying from the golden woods,
Fly to her, and pipe and WOO her, and
make her mine,
And tell her, tell her, that / follow thee.
One great feature of Tennyson's ref
erence to birds is his full and felicitous
vocabulary seen, for instance, to great
advantage in the swallow-song of THE
Princess One can we'll believe the
story of the man who sat up all night
searching for the adjective, and was
annoyed and pleased at the same time
to discover when he had found it at
last that Tennyson had used it before
him. Bryant, poet of by no means
contemplate taste and expression,
wrote in his Death of the Flowers:
THE robin and the wren are flown, and
from the shrub the jay,
And from the woodtop calls the crow
through all the gloomy day"
Tennyson would never have gathered
up two such different notes as those
of the jay and the crow in one verse,
still less would he have sanctioned the
reading of "caws" for calls as Bry-
ant is reported to have done Jays, as
a wonderful appreciation of the bird
by Americas foremost humorist will
not let us forget do not cav" but
laugh.
OF all birds. crows and rocks are con-
sidered the most prophetical and omin-
ouS The Arab says, L have seen the
raven of separation" The fatal ra-
ven'' was the device of Odin and the
Danish standard; Cicero was forewarn-
ed of his death by these .'sad presag aging"
birds; Shakespeare calls them nights
black agents" This is, perhaps, due
to their solemn black plumage.
The crow, raven and rook are all very
alike in appearance, and Tennyson Qike
Shakespeare in Macbeth" III, y
does not care TO distinguish them, e. G.,
1.-The many wintered crow leads the
changing rookery home" An interest
ing query arises here. Was the epithet
many wintered' suggested by Shakes
peare's Phoenix and Turtle Thou
treble-dated Grow" or by Horace. with
his annosa cornix (Od., ill.,, lib?
Both sources were so often drawn upon
by the poet that We cannot decide for
either with certainty.
For the ominous use of the bird, CT.
For a raven ever croaks at my side,
keep watch and ward, keep watch and
ward: and in .'Guinevere":
"a blot in heaven, the Raven, flying high,
Croak'd. and she thought. He spies a
field of death
Edgar Valdes, in Temple Bar
Teacher Ito class in geography
What is latitude?
Johnny Squash-The distance north