BIRDS AND POETS 27 
And drowned in yonder living blue 
The lark becomes a sightless song.” 
And again in this from “A Dream of Fair Wo- 
men: ” — 
“ Then I heard 
A noise of some one coming through the lawn, 
And singing clearer than the crested bird 
That claps his wings at dawn.” 
The swallow is a favorite bird with Tennyson, 
and is frequently mentioned, beside being the prin- 
cipal figure in one of those charming love-songs in 
“The Princess.” His allusions to the birds, as to 
any other natural feature, show him to be a careful 
observer, as when he speaks of 
“The swamp, where hums the dropping snipe.’’ 
His single bird-poem, aside from the song I have 
quoted, is “The Blackbird,” the Old World protc- 
type of our robin, as if our bird had doffed the aris- 
tocratic black for a more democratic suit on reach- 
ing these shores. In curious contrast to the color 
of its plumage is its beak, which is as yellow asa 
kernel of Indian corn. The following are the two 
middle stanzas of the poem: — 
“Yet, though I spared thee all the spring, 
Thy sole delight is, sitting still, 
With that gold dagger of thy bill 
To fret the summer jenneting. 
“ A golden bill ! the silver tongue 
Cold February loved is dry; 
Plenty corrupts the melody 
That made thee famous once, when young.” 
Shakespeare, in one of his songs, alludes to the 
