23 MARCH 1912, Page 15

TENNYSON'S POET'S SONG.

[To TER EDITOR OF TIM "SPECTATOR."] SIR,—None of your correspondents who have written interest. ing letters on the subject of Tennyson's " Poet's Song " seem to be aware that there is another possible explanation of the change of " bee " to "fly." The first and third lines of the stanzas in this poem do not rhyme, and if we read " bee " at

the end of the first line we have an awkward assonance with

beak " at the end of the third. In the Everaley edition the present Lord Tennyson has no note; perhaps he might be induced to give his opinion. I must confess to having used this particular alteration as an illustration of Tennyson's fastidious care in such matters before I knew that there was another suggested explanation.—I am, Sir, &c.,