____
1868.



Notes: Life and Song


`Life and Song' is the fifth of a series of seven poems
published under the general heading of `Street-cries',
with the two stanzas following as an introduction:

"Oft seems the Time a market-town
Where many merchant-spirits meet
Who up and down and up and down
Cry out along the street

"Their needs, as wares; one THUS, one SO:
Till all the ways are full of sound:
-- But still come rain, and sun, and snow,
And still the world goes round."

The remaining numbers of the series are: 1. `Remonstrance',
given in this volume; 2. `The Ship of Earth'; 3. `How Love Looked for Hell';
4. `Tyranny'; 6. `To Richard Wagner'; 7. `A Song of Love'.

I can think of no more helpful comment on the subject of our poem
than this sentence from Milton's `Apology for Smectymnuus',
already alluded to in the `Introduction' (p. liv [Part VI]):
"And long it was not after, when I was confirmed in this opinion,