THE MIDDLE MERE. Compare a similar classical construction in Oenone, l.
10, topmost Gargarus.

53-55. THE WINTER MOON--HILT. The frosty air made the moonlight more
than usually brilliant.

60. THIS WAY--MIND. An echo of Vergil's line, Aeneid, VIII. 20. _Atque
animum nunc huc celerem, nunc dividit illuc_. "And he divides his swift
mind now this way, now that."

63. MANY-KNOTTED WATER FLAGS. Dr. Sykes has a careful note on this
expression (_Select Poems of Tennyson_; Gage & Co.). "The epithet
many-knotted is difficult to explain. The possible explanations would
refer the description to (1) the root-stock of the flag, which shows
additional bulbs from year to year; (2) the joints in the flower stalks,
of which some half-dozen may be found on each stalk; (3) the large
seed-pods that terminate in stalks, a very noticeable feature when the
plant is sere; (4) the various bunches or knots of iris in a bed of the
plants, so that the whole phrase suggests a thickly matted bed of flags.
I favour the last interpretation, though Tennyson's fondness of technical
accuracy in his references makes the second more than possible."

70-71. I HEARD--CRAG. It is interesting to read Chapter V., Book XXI. of
Malory in connection with Tennyson's version of the story. He is
throughout true to the spirit of the original. _A propos_ of lines
70-71, we find in Malory: "What saw thou, there?" said the King. "Sir,"
he said, "I saw nothing but the waters wap and the waves wan." Tennyson,
in these two lines, gives us a consummate example of creative imitation.