42 
NATUEE IN THE NATUEE POETS. 
in polished yet not wholly unfeeling periods the beauties 
of the natural world. 
I may be forgiven for quoting the well-known passage in 
Dryden's " Indian Emperor " : 
"All things are hushed, as Nature's self lay dead; 
The mountains seem to nod their drowsy head, 
The little bh-ds in dreams their songs repeat. 
And sleeping flowers beneath the night-dew sweat ; 
E'en lust and envy sleep, yet love denies 
Best to my soul and slumber to my eyes." 
But better than this are the lines on the swallow (" Hind 
and the Panther ") : 
" This merry chorister hath well possessed 
Her summer seat and feathered well her nest. 
Till frowning skies began to change their cheer. 
And time turned up the wrong side of the year; 
The shedding trees began the ground to strew 
"With yellow leaves, and bitter blast to blow : 
. . . When prudence warned her to remove betimes, 
And seek a better heaven and warmer climes." 
So much then for Dry den. He held for a long time an 
unequalled position in the literary world^ and it w^as more 
than a century before his influence, joined with that of his 
most distinguished follower, disappeared from the form, and 
substance too, of English poetry. He fulfilled the words he 
puts into the mouth of his own Sebastian : 
" A setting sun 
Should leave a track of glory in the skies." 
But the sun set not on hills and rivers, woods and plains, 
on fern and flower, but on man and cities, on action and 
passion, controversy and war. 
Turn for a moment to Pope. His influence was even 
greater than Dryden's. I hardly like to say that he was 
founded on Dryden, as nearly a century's poetry was founded 
