PEPACTON 



hampered by it, as he does in " The Planting of the 

 Apple-Tree," or in the " Lines to a Water-Fowl." 



But there are glimpses of American scenery and 

 climate in Bryant that are unmistakable, as in these 

 lines from "Midsummer:" 



"Look forth upon the earth her thousand plants 

 Are smitten; even the dark, sun-loving maize 

 Faints in the field beneath the torrid blaze; 

 The herd beside the shaded fountain pants; 

 For life is driven from all the landscape brown; 

 The bird has sought his tree, the snake his den, 

 The trout floats dead in the hot stream, and men 

 Drop by the sunstroke in the populous town." 



Here is a touch of our "heated term" when the 

 dogstar is abroad and the weather runs mad. I 

 regret the " trout floating dead in the hot stream," 

 because, if such a thing ever has occurred, it is 

 entirely exceptional. The trout in such weather 

 seek the deep water and the spring holes, and hide 

 beneath rocks and willow banks. The following 

 lines would be impossible in an English poem: 



"The snowbird twittered on the beechen bough, 

 And 'neath the hemlock, whose thick branches bent 

 Beneath its bright, cold burden, and kept dry 

 A circle, on the earth, of withered leaves, 

 The partridge found a shelter." 



Both Bryant and Longfellow put their spring 

 bluebird in the elm, which is a much better place 

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