ers of the sacred well. Ancient tradition connects the origin of
the Muses with Pieria, a district of Macedonia at the foot of Olympus.
But the springs with which we associate the Muses are Aganippe and
Hippocrene on Mount Helicon.

19. So may some gentle muse. A peculiar use of the word _muse_ as
masculine, and meaning _poet_.

23-31. We pursued the same studies, at the same college, and we studied
from early morning sometimes till after midnight. The metaphors are all
pastoral.

32-36. We wrote merry verse, bringing in the college jollities, in wanton
student-fashion, and the good-natured old don who was our tutor affected
to be pleased with our work.

34. Rough Satyrs danced, and Fauns with cloven heel. The _Satyrs_,
represented as having human forms, with small goat's horns and a small
tail, had for their occupation to play on the flute for their master,
Bacchus, or to pour his wine. The _Fauns_ were sylvan deities, attendants
of Pan, and are represented, like their master, with the ears, horns, and
legs of a goat.

37-49. Nature herself sympathizes with men, and mourns thy loss.

50. Nymphs: deities of the forests and streams.

52. on the steep Where your old bards, the famous Druids, lie. The
shipwreck in which King was lost took place off the coast of Wales. Any
one of the Welsh mountains will serve to make good this allusion.

54. Nor on the shaggy top of Mona high. _Mona_ is the ancient and
poetical name of the island of Anglesea.

55. Nor yet where Deva spreads her wizard stream. The Dee (Deva) below
Chester expands into a broad estuary. In his lines spoken At a Vacation
Exercise, Milton, characterizing many rivers, mentions the "ancient
hallowed Dee." The country about the Dee had been specially famous as the
seat of the old Druidical religion. In the eleventh Song of his
Polyolbion, Drayton eulogizes the medicinal virtues of the salt springs
in the valley of the river Weever, which attract Thetis and the
Nereids:--

And Amphitrite oft this Wizard River led
Into her secret walks (the depths profound and dread)
Of him (supposed so wise) the hid events to know
Of things that were to come, as things done long ago.
In which he had been proved most exquisite to be;
And bare his fame so far, that oft twixt him and Dee,
Much strife there hath arose in their prophetic skill.

56-63. Even the Muse Calliope could do nothing for her son Orpheus, whom