In Bird Land (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1894. Excerpt: ... XVIII. A BIRD ANTHOLOGY FROM LOWELL.1 IN 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 reality. 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. ful enough for him, and does not need the garnishing and drapery of an over-fanciful interpretation. It is not my purpose, however, to eulogize Lowell's poetry, even his poetry of Nature, in a general way, or attempt an analysis of it, but simply to call attention to his metrical descriptions of the feathered creation. Among all our American poets, he is the limner par excellence of bird ways. It is true that Emerson is somewhat rich in allusions to our feathered denizens, and especially felicitous in his characterizations; but his references are briefer, more casual, and far less frequent than those of Lowell, who takes toll of them, one might almost say, without stint; for he says of hi...