--he had studied the world of books with not less sympathy and
attention. In the sense of a profound and extensive acquaintance with
all that is best in ancient and modern poetry, and in an extraordinarily
wide knowledge of general literature, of philosophy and theology, of
geography and travel, and of various branches of natural science, he is
one of the most erudite of English poets. With the poetry of the Greek
and Latin classics he was, like Milton and Gray, thoroughly saturated.
Its influence penetrates his work, now in indirect reminiscence, now in
direct imitation, now inspiring, now modifying, now moulding. He tells
us in 'The Daisy' how when at Como "the rich Virgilian rustic measure of
'Lari Maxume'" haunted him all day, and in a later fragment how, as he
rowed from Desenzano to Sirmio, Catullus was with him. And they and
their brethren, from Homer to Theocritus, from Lucretius to Claudian,
always were with him. I have illustrated so fully in the notes and
elsewhere [1] the influence of the Greek and Roman classics on the poems
of 1842 that it is not necessary to go into detail here. But a few
examples of the various ways in which they affected Tennyson's work
generally may be given. Sometimes he transfers a happy epithet or
expression in literal translation, as in:--


On either _shining_ shoulder laid a hand,


which is Homer's epithet for the shoulder--


[Greek: ana phaidimps omps]