124 NATURE AND THE POETS. 



old poets, he does not dwell upon nature, except oc 

 casionally through the vistas opened up by the great 

 sciences, as astronomy and geology, but upon life and 

 movement and personality, and puts in a shred of 

 natural history here and there, the " twittering red- 

 start," the spotted-hawk swooping by, the oscillating 

 sea-gulls, the yellow-crowned heron, the razor-billed 

 auk, the lone wood-duck, the migrating geese, the 

 sharp-hoofed moose, the mocking-bird, " the thrush, 

 the hermit," etc., to help locate and define his posi- 

 tion. Everywhere in nature Whitman finds human 

 relations, human responsions. In entire consistence 

 with botany, geology, science, or what not, he endues 

 his very seas and woods with passion, more than the 

 old hamadryads 05 tritons. His fields^ his rocks, his 

 trees, are not dead material, but living companions. 

 This is doubtless one reason why Addington Symonds, 

 the young Hellenic scholar of England, finds him 

 more thoroughly Greek than any other man of mod- 

 ern times. 



Our natural history, and indeed all phases of life in 

 this country, are rich in materials for the poet that 

 have yet hardly been touched. Many of our most 

 c amiliar birds, which are inseparably associated with 

 one's walks and recreations in the open air, and with 

 the changes of the seasons, are yet awaiting their 

 poet, as the high-hole, with his golden-shafted 

 quills and loud continued spring call ; the meadow 

 lark, with her crescent-marked breast and long 

 drawn, piercing, yet tender April and May summons 



