wii^son's uterary writings 147 



with the stanzas of "The Schoolmistress" and ex- 

 ceed by far those of the contemporary American 

 poet Dwight, written in the same metre, in his 

 "Indian Temple." 



The poem has a less imaginative beauty than 

 the "Invitation," and never rises to poetic fervor, 

 but it flows on in a pleasingly musical measure, — 

 slightly monotonous perhaps, — with many rich 

 nature-pictures and much interesting local color. 



The only poems that are now left to be consid- 

 ered are "The Blue-bird," "The Osprey," and "The 

 King-bird," three charming poems which were 

 printed in the "American Ornithology." "The 

 King-bird or Tyrant Fly-Catcher" is the long- 

 est of these, being more in the descriptive vein, 

 and is written in rhyming pentameters. The 

 other two are far superior to it as poems. Here 

 at last we have the best expression of Wilson's 

 poetic art. In both of these poems there is an 

 original note that we find to the same extent in 

 nothing else that he wrote except the Scotch 

 "Watty and Meg." "The Fisherman's Hymn" 

 in "The Osprey" has a merry swinging measure 

 that excellently fits its subject. It is marred by 

 the enumeration of the various fishes in the sec- 

 ond stanza, but it is one of the best of our early 

 American poems. 



"The American Blue-bird," however, is even 

 better in its rhythmical melody and genuine em- 

 bodiment of the spirit of nature. He was inspired 

 to sing by this very love of nature. In his "For- 

 esters" he exclaimed. 



