"a full beard," but in the time of
Shakespeare they used to say "a well filled beard"--hence the phrase in
the second line of the first stanza.

In the third line the term "delicious tear" means dew,--which the Greeks
called the tears of the night, and sometimes the tears of the dawn; and
the phrase "drunk with dew" is quite Greek--so we may suspect that the
author of this poem had been reading the Greek Anthology. In the third
line of the second stanza the word "poppy" is used for sleep--a very
common simile in Elizabethan times, because from the poppy flower was
extracted the opiate which enables sick persons to sleep. The Greek
authors spoke of poppy sleep. "And when thy poppy works," means, when the
essence of sleep begins to operate upon you, or more simply, when you
sleep. Perhaps the phrase about the "carved acorn-bed" may puzzle you; it
is borrowed from the fairy-lore of Shakespeare's time, when fairies were
said to sleep in little beds carved out of acorn shells; the simile is
used only by way of calling the insect a fairy creature. In the second
line of the third stanza you may notice the curious expression about the
"gilt plaits" of the sun's beams. It was the custom in those days, as it
still is in these, for young girls to plait their long hair; and the
expression "gilt plaits" only means braided or plaited golden hair. This
is perhaps a Greek conceit; for classic poets spoke of the golden hair of
the Sun God as illuminating the world. I have said that the poem is a
little artificial, but I think you will find it pretty, and even the
whimsical similes are "precious" in the best sense.

CHAPTER XII

NOTE ON THE INFLUENCE OF FINNISH POETRY IN ENGLISH LITERATURE

The subject of Finnish poetry ought to have a special interest for the
Japanese student, if only for the reason that Finnish poetry comes more
closely in many respects to Japanese poetry than any other form of Western
poetry. Indeed it is supposed that the Finnish race is more akin to the
Tartar races, and therefore probably to the Japanese, than the races of
Europe proper. Again, through Longfellow, the value of Finnish poetry to
English poetry was first suggested, and I think you know that Longfellow's
Indian epic, "The Song of Hiawatha," was modelled entirely upon the
Finnish "Kalevala."

But a word about the "Kalevala," which has a very interesting history. I
believe you know that at the beginning of the nineteenth century, the
"Kale