wii^on's uterary writings 149 



Bryant and our later poets. These early singers 

 were the beginnings of an American school of 

 poetry, and so, historically, their names are very 

 significant. Among them Wilson must have a 

 place. In volume he left enough to show the se- 

 riousness with which he considered himself as a 

 writer of verse, but the volume of his poetical 

 work does not help his reputation. In the full 

 edition edited in 1876 by Alexander B. Grosart 

 the few good poems which Wilson produced are 

 lost in the great mass of rubbish which the editor 

 has gathered together from the author's youth- 

 ful past. Part of it is made up of puerile attempts 

 at verse ; part^ of mere doggerel written offhand 

 at some odd moments to enclose in letters to his 

 friends. Some of the pieces, produced under the 

 influence of the old chap-books, are positively re- 

 volting in their vulgar coarseness and utter lack 

 of motif. Thrown promiscuously together they 

 seem a hopeless collection of worthless verse 

 which it were best to leave to grow dusty on for- 

 gotten shelves. 



When the chaff is winnowed out, however, 

 something is still left of real worth and enough 

 of it to make a respectable-sized volume. Such a 

 collection would include about twenty poems. 

 Among these would certainly be "The American 

 Blue-bird," "The Osprey," "The Invitation," 

 "The Solitary Tutor," "A Hymn" (IV in the 

 series of hymns), "Watty and Meg," "Eppie and 

 the Deil," "The Disconsolate Wren," "Epistle to 

 William Mitchell," and "The Laurel Disputed." 



Others that would perhaps be included are 



