This fate of the musician and the cricket has the same fundamental idea as the prefatory stanzas, the power of love to soften what is gruff and brighten what is somber in life. 64. _Music's son._ Goethe. The "Lotte" of the next line, the heroine of Goethe's _Sorrows of Werther_, was modeled in part on Charlotte Buff, with whom Goethe was at one time in love. PHEIDIPPIDES [Greek: Chairete, nikomen.] Rejoice we conquer! 2. _Daemons._ In Greek mythology a superior order of beings between men and the gods. 4. _Her of the aegis and spear._ Athena, whose aegis was a scaly cloak or mantle bordered with serpents and bearing Medusa's head. 5. _Ye of the bow and the buskin._ Artemis or Diana, the huntress. Ancient statues represent her as wearing shoes laced to the ankle. 8. _Pan._ The god of nature, half goat and half man. To him was ascribed the power of causing sudden fright by his voice and appearance. He came suddenly into the midst of the Persians on the field of Marathon--so the legend runs--and threw them into such a "panic" that, for this reason, they lost the battle. 9. _Archons of Athens, topped by the tettix._ _Archon._ One of the nine rulers of Athens. _Tettix._ A grasshopper. "The Athenians sometimes wore golden grasshoppers in their hair as badges of honor, because these insects are supposed to spring from the ground, and thus they showed they were sprung from the original inhabitants of the country." (Berdoe, _Browning Cyclopaedia_, p. 336.) 12. _Reach Sparta for aid._ The distance between Athens and Sparta is about 135 miles. 18. _Persia bids Athens proffer slaves'-tribute, water and earth._ The Persians sent to those states which they wished to subject, messengers who were to ask earth and water as symbols of submission. 19. _Eretria._ An important city on the island of Euboea. 20. _Hellas._ Greece. 38. _The moon, half-orbed._ Spartan troops finally came to Athens after the full moon. 47. _Filleted victim._ A victim whose head was decked with ribbons. 52. _Parnes._ Herodotus refers in this connection to the Parthenian mountain. 62. _Erebos._ Hades, the abode of shades or departed spirits. 83. _Fennel._ The Greek word Marathon means fennel. 89. _Miltiades._ One of the ten Athenian generals. 105. _Unforeseeing one._ The poet finishes the story, which he has hitherto allowed Pheidippides to tell for himself. 105. _Marathon day._ In the month of September, B. C. 490. 106. _Akropolis._ The stronghold of Athens. MULEYKEH The love of the Arab for his horse is traditional. "The story is a common one and seems adapted from a Bedouin's anecdote told in Rollo Springfield's _The Horse and His Rider_." (Berdoe, _Browning Cyclopaedia_, p. 280.) WANTING IS--WHAT? This poem is in the nature of a prelude to the group of poems published under the title _Jocoseria_, 1883. Each poem in this volume shows the lack of some element that would have brought the human action or experience to perfection.