BIRDS OF THE POET 



birds and trees and flowers. Possibly the com- 

 mentators have held that the fauna and flora 

 of the Inferno would be, of necessity, a negligible 

 quantity : but, if so, they have failed to grasp 

 that the poet, however unearthly may be his 

 vision, is forced to fall back on Nature for illus- 

 trations to give life and vividness to his pictures. 

 And in this respect Dante shows a power of ob- 

 servation : a faculty for noting the more intimate 

 ways and movements of living things that a 

 Gilbert White might envy. 



The ' ' Divine Comedy " was written more than 

 600 years ago yet here we find the activities and 

 characters of mammals, birds, reptiles, and in- 

 sects observed with the precision of the trained 

 scientist, and recorded with an accuracy that 

 is never for an instant sacrificed to the exig- 

 encies of verse. 



Birds play a considerable part in the great 

 classic : not only the vague mystical forms that 

 drift hither and thither in the land of shadows, 

 but species clearly observed in their native 

 haunts, and that may be readily identified. 

 In Dante's day hav/king was the most widely 

 recognised form of sport, and the technical al- 

 lusions, and the subtle observation of intimate 

 traits, go to show that the poet was, himself, a 

 considerable master of the craft. To take up a 

 hawk after a flight is often a troublesome busi- 

 ness, especially when the bird is young and rest- 

 less, and thus Dante expresses the manner of it : — 



" As falcon that has long been on the wing, 

 But lure nor bird has seen, while in despair. 

 The falconer cries : ' Ah, me,' then stoops to earth 

 Wearied, descends, whence nimbly he arose. 

 In many an airy wheel, and Hghting, sits 

 At distance from his lord in angry mood." 



Again : — 



" A falcon issuing from his hood. 

 That rears his head and claps him with his wings 

 His beauty and his eagerness bewraying. * 



149 



