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A GROUP OF NATURE LYRICS

THE brief expression of a single emotion in poetry is called a lyric. Lyrics may express joy, sorrow, love of nature, of one's country, or of human beings. These five lyrics have some aspect of nature for their chief subject.

THE WIND 1

ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON

[For biographical sketch see page 112.]

I SAW you toss the kites on high
And blow the birds about the sky;
And all around I heard you pass,
Like ladies' skirts across the grass
O wind, a-blowing all day long,
O wind, that sings so loud a song!

I saw the different things you did,
But always you yourself you hid.
I felt you push, I heard you call,
I could not see yourself at all

O wind, a-blowing all day long,
O wind, that sings so loud a song!

O you that are so strong and cold,
O blower, are you young or old?
Are you a beast of field and tree,
Or just a stronger child than me?
O wind, a-blowing all day long,
O wind, that sings so loud a song!

1 From A Child's Garden of Verse.

THE GRASS 1

EMILY DICKINSON

Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) was the daughter of a prominent lawyer in Amherst, Massachusetts. Of a very retiring nature, she rarely saw any one, and for many years did not even cross the threshold of her own home. Her work is most unusual, but she would permit only three or four of her poems to be published. After her death they were collected and published by friends.

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And thread the dews all night, like pearls,

And make itself so fine,

A duchess were too common

For such a noticing.

And even when it dies, to pass

In odors so divine,

As lowly spices gone to sleep,

Or amulets of pine.

And then to dwell in sovereign barns,

And dream the days away,

The grass so little has to do,

I wish I were the hay!

1 From Poems by Emily Dickinson, copyright, 1890, by Roberts Brothers.

THE BROOK 1

JOHN B. TABB

John B. Tabb (1845-1909) was a Catholic priest and the author of many brief, enjoyable lyrics. See also:

Halleck's History of American Literature, pp. 318-320, 338.

It is the mountain to the sea
That makes a messenger of me:
And, lest I loiter on the way
And lose what I am sent to say,
He sets his reverie to song

And bids me sing it all day long.
Farewell! for here the stream is slow,

And I have many a mile to go.

WRITTEN IN MARCH

WILLIAM WORDSWORTH

William Wordsworth (1770-1850) is England's greatest nature poet. Nature seemed to him to possess a conscious soul and to enter into the joys and sorrows of man. He thought that every flower enjoyed the air it breathed. He was born in the wonderful Lake District in northwestern England, where he wrote most of his poetry and passed almost all his life. See also:

Halleck's New English Literature, pp. 5, 386-398, 443, 445.

THE Cock is crowing,

The stream is flowing,
The small birds twitter,

The lake doth glitter,

The green field sleeps in the sun;

The oldest and youngest

1 From Poems by John B. Tabb, copyright, 1894. Used by permission of the publishers, Small, Maynard, and Company.

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He is a

Robert Browning (1812–1889), the author of stirring lyric matic poems, was born at Camberwell, a suburb of London. poet of great originality and force. He loved to write of the trials and growth of human souls. This song of the little silk weaver, Pippa, is a message which she unconsciously conveys to two sinful souls as she passes their house. See also:

Halleck's New English Literature, pp. 540-553, 585.
Chesterton's Robert Browning.

THE year's at the spring

And day's at the morn;
Morning's at seven :

The hill-side's dew-pearled;

The lark's on the wing;

The snail's on the thorn:

God's in his Heaven

All's right with the world!

STUDY HINTS

After reading these lyrics twice aloud to yourself, study them so as to be able to read them more intelligently to some of your friends. If you read them well, see if your friends do not say that they would like to hear more as good. Memorize the stanzas that you like best.

When you read Stevenson's poem, remember that not only children but the grown Greeks and Romans personified the winds. Homer and Vergil tell how Ulysses and Æneas suffered from hostile winds. One of the greatest lyrics of the English poet, Shelley (1792-1822), begins: "O wild west wind, thou breath of Autumn's being."

The Evening Wind is one of the fine lyrics of the American poet Bryant (1794-1878). Stevenson's poem is the simplest of them all and perhaps the most widely read.

After the second reading of The Grass, tell in prose what the grass does, then reread the verse and notice how much more enjoyable it is. Is this poem as simple as The Wind? Is there any hint of humor in either poem?

What is the central idea in The Brook? Who sends the message? How does he make sure that it will not be forgotten? Will this poem increase our pleasure in listening to the music of an actual brook? Is this poem as simple as the two preceding ones?

In reading Wordsworth's Written in March, we should remember that the English spring comes early. After the two readings aloud, try to tell what Wordsworth saw and heard. Of all the things mentioned, which appeal to you most? Which of these poems is the easiest to understand?

Note that each line in Browning's Song from Pippa Passes is a complete sentence and that the verb in each line is "is" (abbreviated to 's). The existence of such beautiful things proves to the poet that God is in heaven and consequently that "All's right with the world." To Browning these lines were probably as self-evident and as simple as any in the preceding poems. Are they so to you? Which of these five poems do you prefer to-day, even if you change your mind when you feel differently?

SUGGESTIONS FOR ADDITIONAL READINGS

Windy Nights (from A Child's Garden of Verse). Robert Louis Stevenson.

Who Robbed the Woods? Emily Dickinson.

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