• TENNYSON'S "POET'S SONG." rTO THE EDITOR OP Till "SPIECTATCHL.")
Sin,—Your correspondent deplores the fact that in the first edition of the "Poet's Song" Tennyson, who was peculiarly careful in his use of words, should have committed the inaccuracy of writing "the swallow stopt as he hunted the bee," a thing no swallow could possibly do. In recent editions this has been altered to " fly" instead of "bee." Perhaps this apparent carelessness might be explained by the fact that the poem was written on Warden's Hill, just behind Somersby, and in Lincolnshire " bee " is used for " fly " or any small- winged insect. "T' bees is as fell as 'owt " is a familiar expression, for "the flies are as bad as anything.". Is it not possible that being where he was Tennyson should have taken advantage of a rendering that certainly was more euphonious, and was at the same time accurate in fact ?-
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