The Hunter of the Prairies is another fine poem: Ay, this is freedom!-these pure skies Were never stained with village smoke: " "What plant we with this apple tree? Sweets for a hundred flowery springs To load the May wind's restless wings, When, from the orchard row, he pourt Ito fragrance through our open doors. A world of blossoms for the bee, Pilarvest for the sick girl's selent room, For the glad infant sprigs of blooms; We plant with the apple tree. William Cullen Bryant. Roslyn, L. J. July 12th 1875 " The bounding elk, whose antlers tear From the long stripe of waving sedge; Another of Mr. Bryant's most admired productions is his Forest Hymn, commencing : -- The groves were God's first temples. Ere man learned To hew the shaft, and lay the architrave, And spread the roof above them,--ere he framed The lofty vault, to gather and roll back The sound of anthems; in the darkling wood, Amid the cool and silence, he knelt down, And offered to the Mightiest solemn thanks Might not resist the sacred influences Which, from the stilly twilight of the place, And from the gray old trunks that high in heaven Mingled their mossy boughs, and from the sound All their green tops, stole over him, and bowed Only among the crowd, and under roofs That our frail hands have raised? Let me, at least, Here, in the shadow of this aged wood, Offer one hymn-thrice happy, if it find “The name of Leigh Hunt," says Smiles, "is associated in our minds with all manner of kindness, love, beauty, and gentleness. He has given us a fresh insight into nature, made the flowers seem gayer, the earth greener, the skies more bright, and all things more full of happiness and blessing." He has given us some fine poems. Here is one about the Flowers, with a touch of the quaintness of the elder poets: We are the sweet flowers, born of sunny showers, (Think, whene'er you see us, what our beauty saith); Not a whisper tells where our small seed dwells, Nor is known the moment green when our tips appear. And leaf by leaf in silence show, till we laugh a-top, sweet flowers! |