of _fleeing forward_, that is, going backwards and
forwards at the same time. Perhaps he uses the word _flee_ for _flow_;
which latter he could not well employ in _this_ place, it being, as we
shall see, essentially necessary to rhyme to _Mexico_ towards the end of
the sonnet--as an equivalent to _flow_ he has, therefore, with great
taste and ingenuity, hit on the combination of _forward flee_--

------------'doth forward flee
By town, and tower, and hill, and cape, and isle,
And in the middle of the green _salt_ sea
Keeps his blue waters fresh for many a mile.'

A noble wish, beautifully expressed, that he may not be confounded with
the deluge of ordinary poets, but, amidst their discoloured and briny
ocean, still preserve his own bright tints and sweet savor. He may be at
ease on this point--he never can be mistaken for any one else. We have
but too late become acquainted with him, yet we assure ourselves that if
a thousand anonymous specimens were presented to us, we should
unerringly distinguish his by the total absence of any particle of
_salt_. But again, his thoughts take another turn, and he reverts to the
insatiability of human ambition:--we have seen him just now content to
be a river, but as he _flees forward_, his desires expand into
sublimity, and he wishes to become the great Gulfstream of the Atlantic.

'Mine be the power which ever to its sway
Will win _the wise at once_--

We, for once, are wise, and he has won _us_--

'Will win the wise at once; and by degrees
May into uncongenial spirits flow,
Even as the great gulphstream of Flori_da_
Floats far away into the Northern seas
The lavish growths of southern Mexi_co_!'--p. 1.

And so concludes the sonnet.

The next piece is a kind of testamentary paper, addressed 'To ----,' a
friend, we presume, containing his wishes as to what his friend should
do for him when he (the poet) shall be dead--not, as we shall see, that
he quite thinks that such a poet can die outright.

'Shake hands, my friend, across the brink
Of that deep grave to which I go.
Shake hands once more; I cannot sink
So far--far down, but I shall know
Thy voice, and answer from below!'

Horace said 'non omnis moriar,' meaning that his fame should
survive--Mr. Tennyson is still more vivacious, 'non _omnino_
moriar,'--'I will not die at all; my body shall be as immortal as my
verse, and however _low I may go_, I