20 JUNE 1896, Page 15

THE BOY-POET.

[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."] SIR,—In your article in the Spectator of June 13th on "The Boy-Poet," commenting on the lines— "For sweet to the ear comes the now-welcome sound Of the factory bell—but the evening bell : Welcome its tones in the evening swell ;" the writer condemns the fatal facility in accepting the 4‘ evening swell," which he says has no meaning, as a rhyme

to the "evening bell." He appears to take "swell" to be the noun, whereas it is the verb, and " its tones " the subject.—I 29 Gunterstone Road, West Kensington, W., June 13th.

[Very likely. But to say that the tones of a bell "swell " in a welcome fashion, is very far from a happy or even pass- able phrase.—En. Spectator.]