NATURE AND THE POETS 



like that of the European blackbird, or our robin. 

 Its most familiar call is like the word *baxique," 

 "bazique," but it has a wild musical note which 

 Emerson has embalmed in this line : 



"The redwing flutes his o-ka-lee." 



Here Emerson discriminates; there is no mistaking 

 his blackbird this time for the European species, 

 though it is true there is nothing fluty or flute- 

 like in the redwing's voice. The flute is mellow, 

 while the "o-ka-lee" of the starling is strong and 

 sharply accented. The voice of the thrushes (and 

 our robin and the European blackbird are thrushes) 

 is flute-like. Hence the aptness of this line of Ten- 

 nyson : 



"The mellow ouzel fluted in the elm," 



the blackbird being the ouzel, or ouzel-cock, as 

 Shakespeare calls him. 



In the line which precedes this, Tennyson has 

 stamped the cuckoo: 



"To left and right, 

 The cuckoo told his name to all the hills." 



The cuckoo is a bird that figures largely in English 

 poetry, but he always has an equivocal look in 

 American verse, unless sharply discriminated. We 

 have a cuckoo, but he is a great recluse; and I am 

 sure the poets do not know when he comes or goes, 

 while to make him sing familiarly like the British 



