146 Ai^ExANDER wii^son: poe;t-naturalist 



pression. The poem is partly addressed to Wil- 

 liam Bartram, the delightful old botanist of Phil- 

 adelphia, and it contains a pleasant note of ac- 

 knowledgment to him. Though perhaps the least 

 important of this late group of nature poems, yet 

 "A Rural Walk" has caught enough of the spirit 

 of nature to give it a fresh beauty, and there is a 

 sense of sweet melody which it leaves with you 

 as though, to quote its repeated line, one had in- 

 deed been where "thrushes pipe their evening 

 song." 



In "The Solitary Tutor," which appeared in the 

 October Literary Magazine two months later than 

 the "Rural Walk," Wilson produced what is per- 

 haps from an artistic point of view the best of his 

 longer English poems. In this Wilson evidently 

 set himself a definite model, Shenstone's "School- 

 mistress," adopting therefor the Spenserian stanza. 

 The poem is autobiographical and depicts very 

 vividly the scenes of Gray's Ferry ; Wilson himself 

 is the "Solitary Tutor." In Shenstone's poem 

 there is a very real character drawn, and some vivid 

 touches of portraiture distinguish it. The sketch of 

 the good old lady and her hen is most felicitous, and 

 very human indeed is the picture of the schoolmis- 

 tress when a culprit stands before her, and 



"brandishing the rod she doth begin 

 To loose the brogues, the stripling's late delight, 

 And down they drop, appears his dainty skin, 

 Fair as the furry coat of whitest ermilin." 



Wilson is more subjective and does not succeed 

 so well in producing a character, but the poetical 

 beauties of his poem compare quite favorably 



