[To THE torsos or rim " Sescrsroa."1
Rm.—Professor Hearnshaw's article entitled "Tennyson Twenty- five Years After " in your issue of the Gth inst. cannot fail to have given pleasure to many of your readers. Those among Tennyson's admirers who are getting old note in these days, with regret, the growing habit of referring to the poet with something of a sneer. Even in tins ease of critics of standing the curl of the lip may sometimes be seen between (or behind) the lines. After all, none of the critics is infallible—not even the youngest. It used to be a refreshing eight to see Andrew Lang hastily place his lance in rest when Teunyson was unjustly attacked. It will, doubtless, be long before the wonderful technique of Tennyson goes down before the sunset of what Professor Hearnshaw- calls " the shapeless and cacophonous impressionism which claims to be the authentic Georgian poetry." We may surely comfort ourselves with the thought that Tennyson's greatness will outlast mountains of cen- sure, and receive enduring recognition from that comparatively small section of the community that cores for the glory and the future of English poetry. Professor Hearnshaw has all students of Tennyson with him when he gives the poet's mastery of form the highest of places. He was indeed probably all but rhyme- perfect. The Professor draws attention to the bad rhyme in " The Charge of the Light Brigade" as the only one that occurs to his memory. Here is another, however. It will be found in "The Song of the Wrens ":— " Bird's song and bird's love, Passing with the weather, Men's song and men's lore, To love once and for ever."
But how rare these lapses roust be.—I am, Sir, he.,
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