IN MODERN POETRY BEING CHAPTERS ON TENNYSON, WORDSWORTH AS EXPONENTS OF NATURE-STUDY BY ALEXANDER MACKIE, M.A. AND AUTHOR OF ANNOTATED EDITIONS OF MACAULAY'S “ WARREN HASTINGS MACAULAY'S "MILTON" WITH A FRONTISPIECE LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. 39 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON NEW YORK AND BOMBAY PREFACE While lovers of Poetry are pleased to see Nature-study finding a place in every school, they hail the innovation all the more that it is likely to add fresh interest to the study of Poetry in which accurate Nature-references are part of the charm. The study of flowers, of insects and birds will throw a new zest into the study of poets who are rich in natural history allusions. It is because I think such knowledge is doubly charming and humanising when clothed in poetic language and judiciously used for poetic embellishment, that I have striven to garner the best material of this kind from four poets, who, while they are all devotees of Nature, show considerable difference in their presentation of scientific facts. The papers were originally contributed to The Scottish Field, to the proprietor of which I beg to express my thanks for granting me leave to reproduce them here. |