BIRDS AND POETS 27 



And drowned in yonder living blue 

 The lark becomes a sightless song." 



And again in this from "A Dream of Fair Wo- 

 men : '' — 



" Then I heard 

 A noise of some one coming through the lawn, 

 And singing clearer than the crested bird 

 That claps his wings at dawn." 



The swallow is a favorite bird with Tennyson, 

 and is frequently mentioned, beside being the prin- 

 cipal figure in one of those charming love-songs in 

 " The Princess. " His allusions to the birds, as to 

 any other natural feature, show him to be a careful 

 observer, as when he speaks of 



"The swamp, where hums the dropping snipe." 



His single bird-poem, aside from the song I have 

 quotedj is "The Blackbird," the Old World proto- 

 type of our robin, as if our bird had doffed the aris- 

 tocratic black for a more democratic suit on reach- 

 ing these shores. In curious contrast to the color 

 of its plumage is its beak, which is as yellow as a 

 kernel of Indian corn. The following are the two 

 middle stanzas of the poem : — 



" Yet, though I spared thee all the spring, 

 Thy sole delight is, sitting still, 

 With that gold dagger of thy bill 

 To fret the summer jenneting. 



" A golden bill I the silver tongue 

 Cold February loved is dry; 

 Plenty corrupts the melody 

 That TCLsSie thee famous once, when young." 



Shakespeare, in one of his songs, alludes to the 



