=79.  And blow a strain the world at last shall heed=.  On the whole, Clough’s poetry was either ignored or harshly criticised by the reviewers.

=80.  Corydon=.  In the Idyls of Theocritus, Corydon and Thyrsis, shepherd swains, compete for a prize in music.

=84.  Piping a ditty sad for Bion’s fate=.  Bion of Smyrna, Asia Minor, a celebrated bucolic poet of the second century B.C., spent the later years of his life in Sicily, where it is supposed he was poisoned.  His untimely death was lamented by his follower and pupil, Moschus of Syracuse, in an idyl marked by melody and genuine pathos. =ditty=.  In a general sense, any song; usually confined, however, to a song narrating some heroic deed. [207]

=85. cross the unpermitted ferry’s flow=.  That is, cross the river of Woe, over which Charon ferried the shades of the dead to Hades.  Mythology records several instances, however, of the ferry being passed by mortals.  See note, ll. 34-39, Memorial Verses; also ll. 207-210, The Scholar-Gipsy, of this volume.

=88-89.  Proserpine=, wife to Pluto (l. 86) and queen of the underworld, was anciently honored, with flower festivals in Sicily, as the goddess of the spring.

=90.  And flute his friend like Orpheus=, etc.  See note, ll. 34-39, Memorial Verses.

=94.  She knew the Dorian water’s gush divine=.  The river Alpheus, in the northwestern part of the Peloponnesus—­the country of the Dorians—­disappears from the surface and flows in subterranean channels for some considerable part of its course to the sea.  In ancient Greek mythology it was reputed to rise again to the surface in central Sicily, in the vale of Enna, the favorite haunt of Proserpine, as the fountain of Arethusa.

=95-96.  She knew each lily white which Enna yields=, etc.  According to Greek mythology, Proserpine was gathering flowers in the vale of Enna when carried off by Pluto.

=97.  She loved the Dorian pipe=, etc.  What reason or reasons can you give for Proserpine’s love of things Dorian?

=106.  I know the Fyfield tree=.  See l. 83, The Scholar-Gipsy.

=109.  Ensham, Sanford=.  Small towns on the Thames; the former, some four miles above Oxford; the latter, a like distance below.

=123.  Wytham flats=.  Some three miles above Oxford, along the Thames.
          
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=135. sprent.  Sprinkled=.  The preterit or past participle of spreng (obsolete or archaic).

=141-150=.  Explain.

=155.  Berkshire=.  See note, l. 58, The Scholar-Gipsy.

=167.  Arno-vale=.  The valley of the Arno, a river in Tuscany, Italy, on which Florence is situated.

=175.  To a boon ... country he has fled=.  That is, to Italy.

=177. the great Mother=.  Ceres, the earth goddess.