CHANTICLEER 197 



minstrels among men, are vain creatures, and some 

 kind officious fairy ■wrhispered in his ear that there 

 was an appreciative listener hard by, and so to please 

 me he sang, just one stave more. 



Lying and listening in the dark, it seemed to me 

 that there were two opposite qualities commingled 

 in the sound, with an effect analogous to that of 

 shadow mingling with and chastening light at even- 

 tide. First, it was strong and clear, full of assurance 

 and freedom, qualities admirably suited to the song 

 of a bird of Chanticleer's disposition j a lusty, 

 ringing strain, not sung in the clouds or from a 

 lofty perch midway between earth and heaven, but 

 with feet firmly planted on the soil, and earthly ; 

 and compared with the notes of the grove like a 

 versified utterance of Walt Whitman compared with 

 the poems of the true inspired children of song — 

 Blake, Shelley, Poe. Earthly, but not hostile and 

 eager; on the contrary, leisurely, peaceful, even 

 dreamy, with a touch of tenderness which brings it 

 into relationship with the more aerial tones of the 

 true singers ; and this is the second quality I spoke 

 of, which gave a charm to this note and made it 

 seem better than the others. This is partly the effect 

 of distance, which clarifies and softens sound, just 

 as distance gives indistinctness of outline and 

 ethereal blueness to things that meet the sight. 

 To objects beautiful in themselves, in graceful lines 



