July — * Mariana in the South! 217 



the glen, but awakes to the 'steady glare' of the 

 south : — 



* She woke : the babble of the stream 



Fell, and without the steady glare 



Shrank one sick olive sere and small. 



The river-bed was dusty-white ; 



And all the furnace of the light 



Struck up against the blinding wall.' 



In the last stanza but one the same note recurs : — 



4 And flaming downward over all 



From heat to heat the day decreased, 

 And slowly rounded to the east 

 The one black shadow from the wall.' 



This last touch of the black shadow is a repetition 

 of one given in the opening of the poem, where the 

 black shadow is the very first thing mentioned. It was 

 rightly chosen for two reasons, since not only did it 

 prepare the reader for the black shadow dwelling 

 steadily on a hopeless life, but it also truly depicted 

 an effect of glaring sunshine upon landscape. Here, 

 again, is a very common error of northern criticism. 

 In the north the black shadow does not exist, because 

 the sun is not glaring enough to produce it, and north- 

 ern criticism denies the truth of it when adequately 

 interpreted in painting. The poet is not scientifically 

 exact in calling the shadow black, as a painter in study- 

 ing from Nature will find it to be gray or green, purple 

 or brown, according to its situation ; but as a poet- 

 ical artist Tennyson chose the right word, for it is 

 the word which conveys the idea of darkness best, — 



