Those most unlikely people, men of letters and students of
literature, would perhaps profit if they could see their subject through the eyes of these labourers' sons. Their literary training is founded on the soil. They approach poetry through
eitorr By TEE Avon'. Gray's " Elegy," Burns' " Cotter's Saturday Night," Crabber and "The Deserted Village." It is interesting to discover that they prefer the Burns to the Gray, because he takes you into the cottage and gives you an intimate personal picture. Gray looks through the door and is sentimentally external. The first part of the Ode is liked ; the second carries no appeal. Thomas Hardy is popular. The possible unreality of some of the talk is atoned for by the picture and the force and intimacy of the influence of the land on the mind and character of the people.
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