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Bird - Lore 



JUNIOR AUDUBON WORK 

 For Teachers and Pupils 



Exercise XXXII: Correlated with Reading, English, and Music 



THE POET'S TREASURE 



"And now Spring beckons me with verdant hand, . . . " — Li Po. A.D. 702-762. 



There is much wealth which is free to everyone in this great, whirling, 

 beautiful world. Nature's treasures are so numerous that one could scarcely 

 learn to name them all in a lifetime, although they are free to any one who will 

 seek them. It is the gift of poets to discover treasures hidden from ordinary 

 sight, and to them you must go to find the way to many a treasure- trove. 

 You cannot begin too soon to become familiar with the ways and words of 

 poets. The great poets give generously of the wealth they have found, just as 

 great musicians or great artists do. Why not take the best for your own, then, 

 when it can be had for the accepting, instead of wasting your finest sense of 

 appreciation upon the less worthy or the unworthy? If any one should offer 

 you a choice between several coats, or hats, or automobiles, you would surely 

 take the best. Why choose low-grade music or inferior books or ordinary pic- 

 tures when you can as easily have the best? 



To help you prepare for Bird and Arbor Day, the following bits of treasure 

 have been found and are here offered to you. 



In the fourth century B. C. there lived a Chinese poet who was also a 

 minister of state to a feudal prince. This poet was exiled for political reasons, 

 and went to the distant hill-country where he lived with Nature until his 

 tragic death. Thereafter, in his honor, there was held on the fifth day of the 

 fifth moon a festival called the Dragon-boat Festival. 



There follows part of a song written by this poet, whose name was Ch'ii 

 Yiian: 



"Methinks there's a genius 

 Roams in the mountains, 

 Girdled with ivy 

 And robed in wisteria. 

 Lips ever smiling, 

 Of noble demeanour, 

 Driving the yellow pard, 

 Tiger-attended, 



Couched in a chariot 

 With banners of cassia, 

 Cloaked with the orchid, 

 And crowned with azaleas; 

 Culling the perfume 

 Of sweet flowers, he leaves 

 In the heart a dream-blossom 

 Memory haunting. ..." 



This is a wonderful Oriental picture, a gem in words, which though trans- 

 lated from the original, still conveys to us the poet's deep delight in Nature's 

 beauty. One can almost see the imaginary Spirit of the Mountains, clothed in 

 flowers, driving a yellow leopard, attended by tigers, who leaves in each 

 responsive heart a dream-blossom. 



