March — Cheerful Use of the Willcw. 75 



Virgil's mind in connection with a passage of pure con- 

 gratulation, as a tree whose flowers would be haunted by 

 the bees of Hybla : — 



i Fortunate senex ! hie, inter flumina nota 

 Et fontes sacros, frigus captabis opacum ! 

 Hinc, tibi, quae semper vicino ab limite sepes 

 Hyblaeis apibus florem depasta salicti 

 Saepe levi somnum suadebit inire susurro.' 



But what an advantage the English poets have over 

 all others in the melody of that sweet word ' willow ' ! 

 How beautifully it takes its place in verse, — so beauti- 

 fully that the mere repetition of it is music in itself. 



* Sing willow, willow, willow.' 



Virgil was not nearly so fortunate as Shakspeare 

 in this respect, for salictnm is a word which can never 

 have any beauty of sound, though it may be made, of 

 course, to fit neatly into a Latin hexameter ; neither is 

 salix any better for euphony. And even the great soft- 

 ening process which Latin underwent before it was 

 moulded into other languages has not very much im- 

 proved the word for poetry. Sake and salcio are both 

 harsh ; and saule, though softer, is far inferior to willow 

 for syllabic melody. Here it is, for example : the word 

 occurs in some fine lines of Lamartine, but the adjective 

 which follows it is immeasurably more important in the 

 structure of the verse : — 



* La, centre la fureur de Paquilon rapide 

 Le saule caverneux nous pretait son tronc vide, 

 Et j'^coutais siffler dans son feuillage mort 

 Des brises dont mon ame a retenu l'accord.' 



