But we are most concerned, naturally, with wholly impersonal verse, and in it the aged poet is never wholly absent from English thought. As the youthful singer suggests the southland, so the aged bard seems indigenous to the north. It seems inevitable that Gray should depict the Scotch bard as old, [Footnote: _The Bard_.] and that Scott's minstrels should be old. Campbell, too, follows the Scotch tradition. [Footnote: See _Lochiel's Warning_.] It is the prophetic power of these fictional poets, no doubt, that makes age seem essential to them. The poet in Campbell's poem explains, 'Tis the sunset of life gives me mystical lore. Outside of Scotch poetry one finds, occasionally, a similar faith in the old poet. Mrs. Browning's observation tells her that maturity alone can express itself with youthful freshness. Aurora declares, I count it strange and hard to understand That nearly all young poets should write old. ... It may be perhaps Such have not settled long and deep enough In trance to attain to clairvoyance, and still The memory mixes with the vision, spoils And works it turbid. Or perhaps again In order to discover the Muse Sphinx The melancholy desert must sweep around Behind you as before. Aurora feels, indeed, that the poet's gift is not proved till age. She sighs, remembering her own youth, Alas, near all the birds Will sing at dawn,--and yet we do not take The chaffering swallow for the holy lark. Coinciding with this feeling is Rossetti's sentiment: ... Many men are poets in their youth, But for one sweet-strung soul the wires prolong Even through all age the indomitable song. [Footnote: _Genius in Beauty_.] Alice Meynell, [Footnote: See _To any Poet_.] too, and Richard Watson Gilder [Footnote: See _Life is a Bell_.] feel that increasing power of song comes with age. It is doubtless natural that the passionate romantic poets insisted upon the poet's youth, while the thoughtful Victorians often thought of himas old. For one is born with nerves, and it does not take long for them to wear out; on the other hand a great deal of experience is required before one can even begin to think significantly. Accordingly one is not surprised, in the turbulent times of Elizabeth, to find Shakespeare, at thirty, asserting, In me thou seest the glowing of such fire As on the ashes of his youth doth lie,