THROUGH LIBRARY WINDOWS 241 



"The Blue Bird shifting his light burden of 

 song 

 From post, to post along the cheerless fence." 



Whittier gets very close to the heart of Na- 

 ture and rarely sounds a false note. His allu- 

 sions to the flowers are manifold and so beauti- 

 fully correct we never question him; he was 

 reared in the country. How joyously he pets 

 the aster, crocus, eglantine, golden rod, hare- 

 bell, lilac, lily, orchid, pansy, primrose and so 

 many others. His poems are fragrant with 

 flowers and fields. "Snow Bound" is the most 

 faithful picture of our Northern winter that 

 has been put into poetry. 



These are the defects or excellencies of edu- 

 cation and should be so regarded. They are 

 not in any way chargeable to the poetic spirit, 

 and they neither make nor mar the poem. There 

 are times when the poet is so wrapt in his vision 

 and so inspired with his theme he does not think 

 of details and orders and exact conditions and 

 correspondences, but takes out of Nature just 

 what color he will and what flower that pleases 

 and what season that suits his thought and plan, 

 and flings them all into his verse and his poem 

 thrills — because it thrilled him. As an instance 

 at hand, take that remarkable poem of John 



