Surely these songs, even in the fragmentary state in which we have been forced to give them, will be recognized as the work of a great master, by everyone who has the feeling and the fancy requisite for any appreciation of poetry, and are surely as worthy of Mr. Tennyson's genius as Shakspeare's songs are of his, or the lyrics in 'Wilhelm Meister' of Goethe's. They are full of the old exquisite art that has endeared the songs of the 'Princess' to so many thousand hearts. We find here, as in those and other old favourites, those lovely and indescribable touches which seem to paint in sound or air the very things they name--the 'Winds and lights and shadows that cannot be still;' the 'Wet west wind, how you blow, how you blow;'-- There is the alliteration that is so magical because so seldom used-- 'Woods where we hid from the wet, Stiles where we stay'd to be kind, Meadows in which we met;' There are the familiarity with nature and the accurate observation at once so characteristic of English poetry and of Mr. Tennyson's muse-- 'The blue woodlouse and the plump dormouse.' 'The wren with the crown of gold.' 'The fire-crowned king of the wrens from out of the pine! Look how they tumble the blossoms, the mad little tits! Cuckoo! Cuckoo! was ever a May so fine;' There too the hundred links of connexion which bind the twelve songs into one golden chain--the constant references to the 'light,' or the 'blaze,' or the 'flash,' or the 'window pane,' which form the keynote of the whole; and lastly the human sentiment at once so deep and broad which fuses the whole into poetry in its noblest sense--all these proclaim the deep and abiding worth of this unpretending series of lyrics. The Shakspearian ring in one or two of them (especially in No. 8), is as obvious, though in a different vein, as in any of the well-known lyrics in the 'Idylls of the King.' It will be obvious that we do not agree with those who regard Mr. Tennyson's last effort as 'a trifle from beginning to end.' Slight in texture it may be, but slightness is not triviality.