must not be passed, and before I reprint this I will
consider well all objections. The images are all from actual
observation.... The cuckoo in the wet June morning, I heard in the
garden at Woodford, and all those three stanzas, which you like, are
reminiscences of Woodford. Edward has, I think, fixed on the two
stanzas I myself like best: 'O easy access,' and 'And long the way
appears.' I also like 'Where is the girl,' and the stanza before it;
but that is because they bring certain places and moments before
me.... It is probably too quiet a poem for the general taste, but I
think it will stand wear." To his friend, John Campbell Shairp, Arnold
wrote, a few days later: "Thyrsis is a very quiet poem, but, I think,
solid and sincere. It will not be popular, however. It had long been
in my head to connect Clough with that Cumner country, and, when I
began, I was carried irresistibly into this form. You say, truly, that
there was much in Clough (the whole prophetic side, in fact) which one
cannot deal with in this way.... Still, Clough had the idyllic side,
too; to deal with this suited my desire to deal again with that Cumner
country. Anyway, only so could I treat the matter this time. _Valeat
quantum_." [204]

=1.= Note how the tone of the poem is struck in the first line.

=2. In the two Hinkseys.= That is, North and South Hinksey. See note,
l. 125, _The Scholar-Gipsy._

=4. Sibylla's name.= In ancient mythology the Sibyls were certain
women reputed to possess special powers of prophecy, or divination,
and who claimed to make special intercession with the gods in behalf
of those who resorted to them. Do you see why their "name" would be
used on signs as here mentioned?

=6. ye hills.= See note, l. 30, _The Scholar-Gipsy._

=14. Ilsley Downs.= The surface of East and West Ilsley parishes, in
Berkshire, some twelve or fourteen miles south of Oxford, is broken by
ranges of plateau-like hills, known in England as _downs_.

=15. The Vale.= White Horse Vale; the upper valley of the River Ock,
westward from Oxford. =weirs=. See note, l. 95, _The Scholar-Gipsy._
[205]
=19. And that sweet city with her dreaming spires.= Arnold's intense
love for Oxford and the surrounding country appears in many of his
essays and poems. In the introduction to his _Essays on Criticism_,
Vol. I, occurs the following