116 NATURE AND THE POETS. 



is American ; one can almost see the waiting, ru- 

 minating cows slowly stir at the signal, and start for 

 home in anticipation of the summons. Every sum- 

 mer day, as the sun is shading the hills, the clatter 

 of those pasture-bars is heard throughout the length 

 and breadth of the land. 



" Snow-Bound " is the most faithful picture of our 

 Northern winter that has yet been put into poetry. 

 What an exact description is this of the morning 

 after the storm : 



" We looked upon a world unknown, 

 On nothing we could call our own. 

 Around the glistening wonder bent 

 The blue walls of the firmament, 

 No cloud above, no earth below, 

 A universe of sky and snow." 



In his little poem on the May-flower, Mr. Sted- 

 man catches and puts in a single line a feature of our 

 landscape in spring that I have never before seen 

 alluded to in poetry. I refer to the second line of 

 this stanza : 



" Fresh blows the breeze through hemlock trees, 



The fields are edged with green below, 

 And naught but youth, and hope, and love 

 We know or care to know." 



It is characteristic of our Northern and New Eng- 

 land fields that they are " edged with green " in 

 spring long before the emerald tint has entirely over- 

 spread them. Along the fences, especially along the 

 stone walls, the grass starts early ; the land is fattel 

 there from the deeper snows and from other causes 



