TENNYSON AS A NATURALIST 255 



Now and then the flash of unfamiliar analogy 

 suggests a thought new to poetry. The lines, 



" Wearing his wisdom lightly, like the fruit 

 Which in our winter woodlands looks a flower," 



are the very soul of that Dedication, which, but for 

 the Spindle-tree, would have taken a quite different 

 and less vivid turn. The verses to J. S. reach their 

 highest point when they bring in the long-lasting 

 summer twilight of the northern shores, never turned 

 to such poetic service before. 



" His memory long will live alone 



In all our hearts as mournful light 

 That broods above the fallen sun, 

 And dwells in heaven half the night." 



There is no deep observation but a pleasant 

 humour in the well-known passage : 



" When the lone hern forgets his melancholy, 

 Lets down his other leg, and stretching, dreams 

 Of goodly supper in the distant pool." 



(Gareth and Ly netted) 



Tennyson's natural history allusions have not quite 

 escaped criticism. Mr. J. E. Harting 1 points out two 

 slips. In " The Poet's Song " we used to read : 



" The swallow stopt as he hunted the bee," 

 and in In Memoriam these lines occur : 



" Where now the seamew pipes, or dives 

 In yonder greening glade." 



The swallow does not hunt bees, and no gull pipes 

 or dives. 



1 Zoologist i 1893, p. 145, 



