24 



MY STUDIO NEIGHBORS 



gun, forsooth — nor welcome your "darling of the 

 spring," even though he were never so captivating 

 as a songster. 



The song and the singer are here identical and 







inseparable, to ^ 

 my prosaic and 

 rational senses; 

 for does not 

 that "blithe new- 1 



comer," as Ten- 

 nyson says, " tell his name to all the hills " — 

 " Ctickoo ! Cuckoo !" 



The poet of romance is prompted to draw on 

 his imagination for his facts, but the poet of nat- 

 ure must first of all be true, and incidentally as 

 beautiful and good as may be ; and a half-truth or 

 a truth with a reservation may be as dangerous 



