144 ALEXANDER WILSON: POET-NATURAUST 



has a significance as showing that the two poets 

 were undoubtedly acquainted and that the poet- 

 naturaHst admired and loved ardently his "Brither 

 Scot." There are manifest faults in the poem, 

 but it tells us that to Wilson the subject was the 

 "well-known Burns," his friend, whom he knew 

 when though he was "his country's pride," he 

 was "yet left dark Poverty's cold winds to brave." 

 We have come now to the consideration of a 

 small group of nature poems on which we must 

 at last base Wilson's fame as a poet. The first 

 of these was "The Invitation." It is in the form 

 of a verse letter from Wilson to Charles Orr and 

 is descriptive of the inducements which the coun- 

 try offers to city-stifled workers. It is full of the 

 beating pulse of blossoming summer, painting a 

 land of almost oriental brilliancy. A rich color- 

 ing lights up the whole extent of its almost a 

 century and a half of lines with the "green and 

 gold and purple" hues of bird and flower. The 

 little humming-bird "chirps his gratitude" as he 

 hovers over the honeyed sweetness of the lines, 

 flitting by the poet's art through the verse-gar- 

 den. We see the "richest roses," as fanned by 

 the ceaseless beating of his wings they "shrink 

 from the splendour of his gorgeous breast" ; we 

 listen with the poet when he tells us how 



"Sweet sings the thrush to mornmg and to me ;" 



we watch the king-bird as he "Snaps the return- 

 ing bee with all her sweets." And delighted we 

 follow on as he leads us through his favorite 

 haunts where the birds sing 



