150 AI^^XANDER WILSON : POET-NATURAUST 



"The King-bird," "A Rural Walk," the two 

 poems on Burns, the group, "Epistles" to An- 

 drew Clark, David Brodie, and Eben Picken, and 

 selections from "The Foresters." These would in- 

 clude among them the best of Wilson's work in 

 verse; the first eight are undeniably good. 



In his poetry Wilson was not remarkable for 

 his originality, and it was only his intense love 

 for the birds that sometimes made him so forget 

 all models that he was able to produce something 

 that had on it the true mark of his own personal- 

 ity. He lacked critical judgment and often his 

 most excellent lines occur in otherwise barren 

 poems, while just as frequently his strongest 

 stanzas are marred by strikingly poor lines. He 

 was too reserved to ever put his innermost feel- 

 ings into his verse, and his taciturn Scotch nature 

 rarely granted to him a moment of heated fervor. 

 Yet his ardent love for nature and the close ob- 

 servation which he made of her ways, combined 

 with his poetic sensibilities, enabled him to write 

 some exceedingly attractive nature poems which 

 should assure him consideration among our early 

 lesser poets. His pictures of nature are emi- 

 nently true and his verse is usually rhythmical, 

 while sometimes his lines are exquisitely musical. 



When we come to count over American poets, 

 we shall find many greater and more splendid 

 names, but America can never be so rich in poetry 

 that we should forget the early beginnings of our 

 song, or altogether overlook the modest verses 

 of Alexander Wilson, "the poet-naturahst," in 

 whose heart the birds "nestled and sang." 



