the breaking off of the last line from visions of the grave and of peaceful death,—
"I hear the roaring of the sea,
Oriana."
The same grace of indistinctness, though linked with a gentler mood and with a softer music, makes the lullaby in "The Princess" a lasting delight to children, while the pretty cradle-song in "Sea Dreams," beginning,—
"What does little birdie say
In her nest at peep of day?"
has never won their hearts. Its motive is too apparent, its nursery flavor too pronounced. It has none of the condescension of "Minnie and Winnie," and grown people can read it with pleasure; but a simple statement of obvious truths, or a simple line of obvious reasoning, however dexterously narrated in prose or verse, has not the art to hold a youthful sold in thrall.
If it be a matter of interest to know what poets are most dear to the children around us, to the ordinary "apple-eating" little boys and girls for whom we are hardly brave enough to predict a shining future, it is delightful to be told by favorite authors and
