IN MODERN POETRY BEING CHAPTERS ON TENNYSON, WORDSWORTH MATTHEW ARNOLD AND LOWELL AS EXPONENTS OF NATURE-STUDY BY ALEXANDER MACKIE, M.A. AUTHOR OF ANNOTATED EDITIONS OF MACAULAY'S "WARREN HASTINGS AND WITH A FRONTISPIECE LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. 39 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON NEW YORK AND BOMBAY "Knowing that Nature never did betray The heart that loved her." -WORDSWORTH, THE ABERDEEN UNIVERSITY PRESS LIMITED. Speteray 8-18-41 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. |