PEPACTON 



has seen farther into the pine-tree than any other 

 poet; his "May-Day" is full of our spring sounds 

 and tokens ; he knows the " punctual birds," and 

 the " herbs and simples of the wood : " 



"Rue, cinque-foil, gill, vervain, and agrimony, 

 Blue- vetch, and trillium, hawk-weed, sassafras, 

 Milk-weeds and murky brakes, quaint pipes and sun -dew." 



Here is a characteristic touch : 



"A woodland walk, 



A quest of river-grapes, a mocking thrush, 

 A wild rose, or rock-loving columbine, 

 Salve my worst wounds." 



That "rock-loving columbine" is better than Bry- 

 ant's " columbines, in purple dressed," as our flower 

 is not purple, but yellow and scarlet. Yet Bryant 

 set the example to the poets that have succeeded 

 him of closely studying Nature as she appears under 

 our own skies. 



I yield to none in my admiration of the sweetness 

 and simplicity of his poems of nature, and in gen- 

 eral of their correctness of observation. They are 

 tender and heartfelt, and they touch chords that no 

 other poet since Wordsworth has touched with so 

 firm a hand. Yet he was not always an infallible 

 observer; he sometimes tripped up on his facts, and 

 at other times he deliberately moulded them, adding 

 to, or cutting off, to suit the purposes of his verse. 



