6 The Poets and Nature. 



(as usual " shagged with horrors ") addresses such pretty 

 things as may-flies and butterflies as a "reptile throng," 

 and it is worth noting how with his usual infelicity he speaks 

 of these reptiles as being " winged, and by the light air 

 upborne." 



1 ' To sunny waters some 

 By fatal instinct fly ; where on the pool 

 They, sportive, wheel ; or, sailing down the stream, 

 Are snatch'd immediate by the quick-eyed trout 

 Or darting salmon. Through the greenwood glade 

 Some love to stray ; there lodged, amus'd, and fed 

 In the fresh leaf. Luxurious, others make 

 The meads their choice, and visit every flower, 

 And every latent herb. 



Some to the house, 



The fold, and dairy, hungry, bend their flight, 

 Sip round the pail, or taste the curdling cheese ; 

 Oft, inadvertent, from the milky stream 

 They meet their fate ; or, weltering in the bowl, 

 With powerless wings around them wrapt, expire." 



Wordsworth, again, calls the glow-worm "a very reptile, " 

 which is intolerable, seeing how he uses the word elsewhere. 

 Eliza Cook, after her wont, speaks of cobwebs as 



1 ' The bright slime that cunning reptiles spread 

 To catch their prey." 



But her use of the reptile idea is always thoroughly in 

 character with her poetry generally. What can we say, for 

 instance, of such a stanza as this where an unmasked villain 

 is illustrated by a skinned snake : 



' ' Why, why does Heaven bequeath such gifts 



To fascinate all eyes, that mark 

 With magnet charm, till something lifts 



The mask, and shows how foully dark 

 The dazzling reptile is within 

 Beneath its painted, shining skin ? " 



But this lady's definition of reptiles is, like most ladies', 

 very vague. They consider the word synonymous with 



