15 DECEMBER 1894, Page 15

MR. WILLIAM WATSON.

[TO THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR." J

SIE,—.Some readers of Mr. William Watson's exquisite lines on the skylark may like to be reminded of others of Dante, of which Landor said :—" All the verses that ever were written of the nightingale are scarcely worth the beautiful

triad of this divine poet on the lark. As often as I repeat them, my ear is satisfied, my heart contented." They are in the " Paradiso " (xx. 73), where the souls of the blessed are pictured as resting in the joy of the perfections of the Most High as the lark in the sweetness of its own song :— " Qual lodoletta che 'n sere si spazia Prima eantando, e poi taco contents Dell Wilma dolcezza eke la sazia ; "

which Plumptre translates,—

" As is a lark that cleaves at will the sky, First singing loud, then silent in content, With that last sweetness which doth satisfy."