NOTES TO THE POEMS

children of her sister-in-law Niobe, she resolved to
kill the eldest of them, but in mistake slew her own
son. Zeus, to avert her husband's vengeance, turned
her into a nightingale.

1. 3. Daulis : a town about ten miles north of the Gulf
of Cornith, but not near the Thracian Sea.

Thracian Sea : the northern part of the Aegean Sea.

Pied Beauty.

Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-1889) lived and wrote in
the Victorian era, but his poems were not published
until 1918. He combined a vivid sense of the beauty
of the external world with a deep insight into the soul.
The experiments in metre and language that have
prevented his popularity, are yet the sign of a vital
imaginative energy conspicuous among the Victorians.
In the Preface to his " Poems,'5 Father Hopkins
calls " Pied Beauty " a Curtal-Sonnet, that is a sonnet
" constructed in proportions resembling those of the
sonnet proper, namely 6 + 4 instead of 8 + 6, with,
however, a half-line tailpiece (so that the equation
is rather \£+|== s^ ==io|-)."

A Passer-By.
Robert Bridges (1844-1930) was educated at Eton and
Corpus Christi College, Oxford, and studied medicine.
In 1913 he was appointed Poet Laureate. His works
include various plays, critical essays, and " The Testa-
ment of Beauty." His interest in the mechanics of
his craft and verse experiment is evident in his study,
" Milton's Prosody," and in the exquisite workman-
ship of his own poetry. On its appearance " The
Testament of Beauty " was hailed as likely to become a
classic in English poetry.
The Vagabond.
Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894) was born and edu-
cated in Edinburgh. In 1875 ne was called to the
Bar, but never practised. He was forced to travel
for his health, and finally settled in Samoa. His
fame rests chiefly on " Treasure Island," " Kidnapped,"
" The Black Arrow," and other tales of adventure,
told in a style carefully polished to a French clearness
and precision.