346 SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



It has been observed, that the Poplar is not dainty as 

 to soil : it will grow in any but a very dry soil, but it 

 most delights to coast the rills and brooks ; 



" The poplar trembling o'er the silver flood," 



will grow more luxuriantly than in a wood, or park, 

 where it has no water near : 



" The poplar never dry/' 

 says Spenser. The following is a beautiful miniature : 



" It was a shallow dell, set in a mound 

 Of sloping shrubs, that mounted by degrees, 

 The birch and poplar mixed with heavier trees ; 

 From under which, sent through a marble spout, 

 Betwixt the dark wet green a rill gushed out, 

 Whose low sweet talking seemed as if it said 

 Something eternal to that happy shade. 1 ' 



LEIGH HUNT. 



Cowper has addressed some verses to a field of Poplars 

 under which he had been accustomed to sit, which were 

 afterwards felled, much to the poet's regret. 



