NATURE AND THE POETS. 119 



athwart the standing grass ; perhaps this is the ex- 

 planation of the line. 



But this is just what the bobolink does, when the 

 care of his young begins to weigh upon him : 



"Meanwhile that devil-may-care, the bobolink, 

 Remembering duty, in mid-quaver stops 

 Just ere he sweeps o'er rapture's tremulous brink, 

 And 'twixt the windrows most demurely drops." 



I do not vouch for that dropping between the win- 

 drows, as in my part of the country the bobolinks flee 

 before the hay-makers, but that sudden stopping on 

 the brink of rapture, as if thoughts of his helpless- 

 young had extinguished his joy, is characteristic. 



Another carefully studied description of Lowell's, 

 is this : 



" The robin sings, as of old from the limb! 

 The cat-bird croons in the lilac-bush ! 

 Through the dim arbor, himself more dim, 

 Silently hops the hermit thrush." 



Among trees Lowell has celebrated the oak, the 

 pine, the birch ; and among flowers, the violet and 

 the dandelion. The last, I think, is the most pleas- 

 ing of these poems : 



11 Dear common flower, that growest beside the way, 

 Fringing the dusty road with harmless gold, 

 First pledge of blithesome May." 



The dandelion is indeed, in our latitude, the pledge of 

 May. It comes when the grass is short, and the 

 fresh turf sets off its " ring of gold " with admirable 

 effect ; hence, we know the poet is a manth or more 



