224 July Alfred de Musset. 



ordinary times, which also disposes the heart of man 

 to gayety. 



Wheat is almost sacred from the great service it 

 yields to man, so that it is not surprising that the poets 

 should speak of it with an especial tenderness and 

 delicacy. Thus Alfred de Musset, in one of his most 

 exquisite little songs, the 4 Chanson de Fortunio,' com- 

 pares the fairness of a fair lady to wheat, and with 

 how pure a touch ! . 



* Si vous croyez que je vais dire 



Qui j'ose aimer, 

 Je ne saurais pour un empire 



Vous la nommer. 

 Nous aliens chanter a la ronde 



Si vous voulez, 

 Que je 1'adore, et qu'elle est blonde 



Comme les bls.' 



And when Rossetti describes the Blessed Damozel 

 in heaven, he can think of no more delicate comparison 

 for her hair than to say that it was like ripe corn : 



* Her hair that lay along her back 

 Was yellow like ripe corn.' 



A stalk of wheat is not a very strong thing ; it can 

 only just bear the weight of a very little bird, and even 

 that seems wonderful till we reflect how light a small 

 bird is, and how perfectly it is able to balance itself ; 

 and yet on these slender stalks what an enormous 

 weight of bread-making material is carried ! Many a 

 great ship is deeply laden with it, many a granary-floor 

 is covered till the great oak-beams visibly bend beneath 



