NATURE AND THE POETS 101 



But there is seldom a false note in any of Whit- 

 tier's descriptions of rural sights and sounds. 

 What a characteristic touch is that in one of his 

 " Mountain Pictures : " — 



" The pasture bars that clattered as they fell." 



It is the only strictly native, original, and typical 

 sound he reports on that occasion. The bleating of 

 sheep, the barking of dogs, the lowing of cattle, the 

 splash of the bucket in the well, "the pastoral cur- 

 few of the cowbell," etc., are sounds we have heard 

 before in poetry, but that clatter of the pasture 

 bars is American; one can almost see the waiting, 

 ruminating cows slowly stir at the signal, and start 

 for home in anticipation of the summons. Every 

 summer 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. Wh^t 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 mayflower, 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 : — 



