98 BY-WA YS AND BIRD-NO TES. 



the aromas and perfumes of wild things ; nor 

 am I sure that explanation would be profitable, 

 if possible. To taste the perfectly distilled 

 honey that lurks in the red-clover bloom is a 

 sufficient demonstration of this influence. A 

 subtle thrill, elusive as it is fascinating, follows 

 the touch of the tongue to this infinitesimal 

 philter. It was made for the bumblebee ; but 

 your pastoral man may profit by the insect's 

 example. If Rossetti, while bending over a 

 woodspurge, had been less an artist and more 

 a poet and philosopher, he might have dis- 

 covered more than he expresses in : — 



" One thing then learnt remains to me, — 

 The woodspurge has a cup of three." 



Compare the flowers of Tennyson and Keats 

 with those of Baudelaire — 



" Des fleurs se pament dans un coin" — 



and the whole fearful difference between the 

 sweets of nature and the filth and rottenness 

 where those sweets are wanting, will rush upon 

 your consciousness. There is something more 

 than the mere shimmer of rhetoric in Virgil's 



" Turn silvis scena coruscis 

 Desuper, horrentique atrum nemus imminet umbra." 



There is in the words a suggestion of what 

 woodsy freshness and fragrance, of what spices 

 and resins, that grove may hold. Howells 

 brings to mind the same possibilities when, 

 in his poem called " Vagary," he sings — 



" Deep in my heart the vision is, 

 Of meadow grass and meadow trees 

 Blown silver in the summer breeze." 



There is a smack of browsing in such a verse 

 as — 



