THE LANDSCAPE BEAUTIFUL 



shows us Walden Pond and windy 

 Wachusett and the bean fields. 



Again, this same difference exists be- 

 tween the metrical poets. Holmes is the 

 naturalist. "The Chambered Nautilus" is 

 a microscopic study, and the very apotheosis 

 of scientific literature. Riley is the land- 

 scapist. "When the frost is on the pump- 

 kin and the fodder's in the shock" gives us 

 a complete picture of the fields. Perhaps 

 another example will be admissible, in 

 which we may contrast Burns with Lowell 

 and Bryant. The Scotch bard turns up a 

 nest of mice and a touching poem with one 

 stroke of his plowshare. But the poem 

 interprets the sad case of the mice in terms 

 of human experience only. There is no 

 breath of the Scottish landscape in it. On 

 the other hand, Lowell, when he tells of 

 the blackbird's song, and Bryant, in his 

 classic story of Robert of Lincoln, show 

 us long sweeps of swamp and meadow. 

 Moreover, these landscapes are spread be- 

 fore our senses with all the vividness of a . 

 photograph and all the feeling of a painting. 



This same principle offers a means of 

 dividing into two groups the thousands of 

 books constituting the modem "nature" 



258 



