the children of Israel being forbidden to marry the " daughters of the land")—or, again, of the inevitable result of the love of mere fleshly beauty. The best known forms of the legend are, perhaps, those of Circe and The Sirens or of the bard Tanhäuser; while we, too, have our Thomas of Ercildoune, who was carried off by the Elfin Queen. As to Keats's way of telling the tale, no one can fail, I suppose, to be alive to the exquisite music of the words, and the genuine skill and self-restraint which he shows. It was written in 1819. P. 36, 1. 1. Knight-at-arms—At occupied with, as in the common expressions, " at work," at supper," &c. 66 P. 36, 1. 2. Palely loitering = loitering in a state of paleness. A peculiar use of the adverb: but cf. The Burial of Sir John Moore, 1. 5. P. 37, 1. 6. by distress and P. 37, 1. 6. Haggard = having an expression of being worn watching; properly, wild, strange, lean-looking. Woe-begone gone far, sunk deep in woe. "One of them Is with treasure so full begone." Cf. GOWER, Confessio Amantis, v. "Such a man, so faint, so spiritless, So dull, so dead in look, so woe-begone." P. 37, 1. 9. produces. SHAKSPERE, 2 Henry IV. i. 1, 70. A lilya lily-whiteness, paleness. Fever dew=the clammy sweat which fever Meads fields (cf. meadow) that which is mowed (A.S. maed, past part. of mȧwan to mow); then, the place where mowing is done. P. 37, 1. 26. Manna dew-a reference to the substance collected by the Jews in the wilderness, and which seemed to them to come like dew (see Exodus xvi. 13, 14; Psalm lxxviii. 24). The Arabian physician Avicenna (died 1057 A.D.) gives the following description of the manna which was used at his time as a medicine:-"Manna is a dew which falls on stones or bushes, becomes thick like honey, and can be hardened so as to be like grains of corn." The manna at present used is the gum of the tamarisk. It drops from the thorns on the sticks and leaves with which the ground is covered, and must be gathered early in the day, or it will be melted in the sun. In the Valley of the Jordan, Burckhardt found it lying like dew on the leaves of the tree gharrob (Salix babylonica). P. 37, 1. 35. Latest = last. He had not slept since. glómung. Gloam-put for gloaming = twilight, A.S. It is a common poetic license to put a prominent part for the whole-so lips in this line. The word is especially happy here; for not only are gaping lips a very prominent symptom of horror, but lips and kisses had played a very prominent part in the warrior's undoing. This variety of reference in a word or a phrase, is one of the best marks of a skilled use of language; especially in poetry. Starved shrunk with the cold, or, simply, dead. = P. 38, . 42. Horrid = literally, bristling; hence making your hair stand on end; inspiring dread or aversion. LONDON: PRINTED BY HOW TO USE THE BOOK. Ir is not the object of this little book to supply texts which may serve as lessons in Grammar, Philology, or Antiquarianism, or which may be made exercises for the memory. The poems gathered here are meant to be studied for the sake of the thought and imagination they contain, and for the sake of the methods used to express these. The intention is that the pupil shall become familiar with fine thought and beautiful imagination in their many varieties, and shall learn how best to give expression to such things. This has been carefully kept in mind in choosing the pieces. Some have been chosen for their thought, some for their imagination; all for the power and excellence of their expression. To enlarge and ennoble the mind there is no better means than the study of literature. To learn how to speak and write correctly and well, there is but one way-the study of literature. To offer an opportunity for the study of simple English Literature is the object of this book. As the pupils, who are to study these poems, are expected to be not much over the age of eleven, it is manifest that the Notes are of necessity very simple in character, and many of them such as boys of fifteen or sixteen years of age would not require. It is hoped that they may serve to illustrate and explain the poems, and to direct the pupil's attention to all the finer points. It is not intended that the Notes should be an object and end in themselves. They will have failed in their aim if they do not drive the pupil back on the text as the sole subject of his study. Grammar is but slightly touched upon; Philology is only introduced when the meaning of a word is thereby really made clearer and more interesting; while Antiquarianism is never brought in except where it really throws light upon the text. When |