A BIRD ANTHOLOGY PROM LOWELC. 



243 



XVIII. 



A BIRD ANTHOLOGY FROM LOWELL.^ 



TN making a study of Lowell's poetry for a special 

 ■"- purpose, one cannot help admiring the genius 

 with which he transmutes every theme he touches 

 into gold. His Muse is exceedingly versatile, ranging 

 at her own sweet will over a wide and varied field. 

 There may be times when you are not in the mood 

 for smiling at his humor or weeping at his pathos ; 

 but his delineations of Nature are always so true, 

 so musical, so picturesque, that they seldom fail to 

 strike a responsive chord in the breasts of those 

 readers who are not 



" Aliens among the birds and brooks, 

 Dull to interpret or conceive 

 What gospels lost the woods retrieve." 



No other American poet seems to get quite so 

 near to Nature's throbbing heart. Dream though 

 he sometimes may, he seldom loses his hold on the 

 world of reaUty. Nature in her own garb is beauti- 



1 This article, under the title of " Lowell and the Birds," 

 was first published in the " New England Magazine," for 

 November, 1891, shortly after the poet's death. Copyright 

 credit is here given to the publisher of that magazine. 



