Poem 163.
fancied green: cherished garden.
Poem 164.
Nothing except his surname appears recoverable with regard to the author of this truly noble poem: It should be noted as exhibiting a rare excellence,—the climax of simple sublimity.
It is a lesson of high instructiveness to examine the essential qualities which give first-rate poetical rank to lyrics such as "To-morrow" or "Sally in our Alley," when compared with poems written (if the phrase may be allowed) in keys so different as the subtle sweetness of Shelley, the grandeur of Gray and Milton, or the delightful Pastoralism of the Elizabethan verse. Intelligent readers will gain hence a clear understanding of the vast imaginative, range of Poetry;—through what wide oscillations the mind and the taste of a nation may pass;—how many are the roads which Truth and Nature open to Excellence.
Poem 166.
stout Cortez: History requires here Balbóa: (A.T.) It may be noticed, that to find in Chapman's Homer the "pure serene" of the original, the reader must bring with him the imagination of the youthful poet;—he must be "a Greek himself," as Shelley finely said of Keats.
Poem 169.
The most tender and true of Byron's smaller poems.
Poem 170.