We look in Anglo-Saxon poetry in vain for a touch like this:--

"Sweetly a bird sang on a pear tree above the head of Gwenn before
they covered him with a turf."[28]

Celtic literature shows more exaggeration, more love of color, and a
deeper appreciation of nature in her gentler aspects. The Celt could
write:--

"More yellow was her head than the flower of the broom, and her
skin was whiter than the foam of the wave, and fairer were her hands
and fingers than the blossoms of the wood anemone amidst the spray
of the meadow fountain."[29]

King Arthur and his romantic Knights of the Round Table are Celtic
heroes. Possibly the Celtic strain persisting in many of the Scotch
people inspires lines like these in more modern times:--

"The corn-craik was chirming
His sad eerie cry [30]
And the wee stars were dreaming
Their path through the sky."

In order to produce a poet able to write both _A Midsummer Night's
Dream_ and _Hamlet_, the Celtic imagination must blend with the
Anglo-Saxon seriousness. As we shall see, this was accomplished by the
Norman conquest.

ANGLO-SAXON PROSE