one who stopped him in the street and a passage from one of his essays asking what he meant by it to which the author of and the after pondering the passage a moment calmly replied that he certainly had a meaning in his mind when he wrote that sentence though it had now unfortunately escaped him but s fault seems to rather in utterance than in conception his mind is full of materials ill which come rushing against and over each other when summoned to daylight and so choke the and prevent or rush forth an confused mass sweeping all before them his later writings are half spoiled by this whirl and are thence inferior on the whole to their immediate yet what a wealth of allusion a mine of meaning a of the intellectual tendencies of the age are found in bishop s apology i and what have we clearer and purer in our language than this � hope hope is dead i sit and watch by her side an that is her book shelf this her bed she plucked that piece of flower beginning to die too in the glass little has yet been changed i think the shutters are shut no light may pass save two long rays through the hinges sixteen years old when she died perhaps she had scarcely heard my name � it was not her tin e to love beside her life had many a hope and � � duties enough and little cares and now was quiet now till god s hand beckoned unawares and the sweet white brow is all of her is it too late then hope what i your soul was and true the good stars met in your made you of spirit fire and dew � and just because i was thrice as old and our paths in the world so wide each was to each must i be told we were fellow mortals beside no indeed for god above is great to grant as mighty to make and the love to reward the love � i claim you still for my own love s sake i delayed it may bo for lives yet through worlds i shall not a few much is to learn and much to forget ere the time bo come for taking but the time will come � at last it will when hope what meant i shall say in the lower earth in the years long still that body and soul so pure and gay why your hair was i shall divine and your mouth of your own s red � and what you would do with me in fine in the new life come in the old one s stead i have lived i shall say so much since then given up myself so many times gained by the gains of various men the ages spoiled the one thing � one � in my soul s full scope either i missed or itself missed mc � and i want and find you hope what is the issue let us see i i loved you all the while my heart seemed full as it could hold � there was place and to spare for the frank young and the red young month and the hair s young gold so � i will give you this leaf to keep � see i shut it inside the sweet cold hand there that is our secret i go to sleep tou will wake and remember and understand poets and poetry i envy the of robert and elizabeth twenty ago they were poets unknown to each other he poor and each by no means young i have heard that their first acquaintance came through their published works which a sympathy destined to make them one forever the usual order they loved they became personally acquainted and were married each wrote better more � in the main more � than before wrote doubtless by the help of the other s happy suggestions as well as loving and so each won larger and still audience and more generous appreciation and and a fair son was bom to them and a wealthy mend related to either left them a modest fortune and they spent their wedded years partly in their native england and partly in their beloved which inspired both of them but especially the wife with some of her noblest and most enduring poems � windows for instance and � and there i believe she died leaving her husband and son not to lament but to rejoice over and thank god for the abiding memory of her worth and her love i close this hurried survey without having attempted to the claims of any among our countrymen to the character and of poets i should prefer to consider american poetry by itself and in its relations to that which preceded and that which is with it in so doing we should find i judge that while it has grave faults � faults of imitation of poverty of of exaggeration � it has decided merits and also � merits not only eminent iu themselves but such as give promise of still achievement in the future if we have contributed our full share to the saxon stock of shallow and sham poetry we have also contributed our full � considering our youth as and our our lack of leisure and of the highest intellectual culture � to that which the world will not willingly let die i this discussion for the present however and close with a more direct consideration of the problem what is the essential nature and true office of poetry of course i need waste no more time on the pitiable ignorance poetry with verse � the eternal essence with the occasional form or garb � though this delusion has still many � i might say victims the young lady who corrected a friend s allusion to 