POETS BLUNDERS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 12955, 26 August 1905, Page 5 (Supplement)

POETS BLUNDERS.

THE SLIPS OF GENIUS.

Who a poet, however great, has worked indoors overmuch, and neglected to check his descriptions by observation, readers often find amusing errors of nature and fact embedded in his lines. Mr. Henry Osborne has collected a- few interesting examples for the Leisure Hour: In his fine ballad of " Young Loch-invar" Scott lias this passage: — So light to the croup the lair lady he swung, So light to the saddle before her ho sprang. Here is a man fond of horsemanship, and a mail who spent many days of his' life in the saddle, one moreover marked by a love of nature and. natural objects; yet he deliberately tells us 'of a feat of horsemanship utterly and physically impossible! The mistake is due partly 'to Scott's habit of writing currents calamo, partly to his magnificent Shakcoperea.il carelessness. ■ But also, we cannot doubt, he was betrayed by the galloping rhythm*, and his wish to create in tho reader the sensation of swift movement and impetuous haste. And for that very same reason multitudes'of readers and reciters have repeated the ballad with admiration, and with no suspicion of the curious blunder involved. Wordsworth and Burns are as accurate in their descriptions as Shakesperc. But there is an example in Coleridge: • In "The Ancient Mariner"-he has the follow kg linos: — Till clomb above the eastern bar The horned moon with one bright star Within the nether tip. Quito impossiblethe dark apparent space between the "tips" of the crescent moon is really the solid body of the planet, through which no star should shine. But the picture seemed piquant, and Coleridge's dreamy eyes saw nothing amiss.