AN ARBOR DAY EXERCISE 

 First Pupil. 



To HIM who in the love of nature holds 

 Communion with her visible forms, she speaks 

 A various language; for his gayer hours 

 She has a voice of gladness, and a smile 

 And eloquence of beauty, and she glides 

 Into his darker musings with a mild 

 And healing sympathy, that steals away 

 Their sharpness, ere he is aware. 



BRYANT. 



Second Pupil. 



For Nature beats in perfect tune, 

 And rounds with rhyme her every rune, 

 Whether she work in land or sea, 

 Or hide underground her alchemy. 

 Thou can'st not wave thy staff in air 

 Or dip thy paddle in the lake, 

 But it carves the bow of beauty there, 

 And the ripples in rhymes the oar forsake. 

 The wood is wiser far than thou; 

 The wood and wave each other know. 

 Not unrelated, unaffied, 

 331 



