Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1893-09-27
Hoods PHI. Cure Sick Headache. 25c.
AMERICAN FLOWERS AND SONG

English poets from Chaucer to Ten
nyson have celebrated the beauties OF
Daisies, the Primroses and the Blue
bells of England, and turning to Amer
lea we find the distinctive plants given
prominence in the pages of our own
best poets. Emerson knew well the New
England fields and woods, their droop,
| ing flowers and blooming shrubs, and
even the "herbs and simples Of the
woods"
| Rue cinque-fon, gill, vervain and agrimerny;
Blue-vetch and trillium, hawk-weed, sassafras,
MIX weeds and murky brakes, quaint pipes anc
Sundew"
He loved woodland walk" and
acted the earliest flowers. His May
lay is full of characteristics of nature
lie saw beneath dim aisles in odorous beds
The slight Linnaea hang its twin-born heads"
And wild rose or rock loving Colum.
bine" were salve for his worst wounds.
Bryant closely studied the genius OF
Jur American novels; he was a real
Infection. As hehimself expresses it:
There Is no glory In star or blossom
TIL looked upon by loving eye;
TherSli no fragrance In April breeze5,
Till breathed with 10y as they wander by"
Whittier, too, lives close to Nature s
heart-he was brought up on the farm
Ind has embodied his boyhood' 3 curious
lore in his well known poem of "The
Barefoot Boy" an epitome of "Knowl-
edge never learned in schools"
How tho robin feeds her young:
How the orioles nest Is hung;
Where the whitest lilies blow,
Where the freshest berries grow,
Where the grOund-nut trails its vines,
Where the wood grape clusters shine"
And in w-Bound" he gives Il faith
rul picture of our bleak New England
Winters.
Lowell, too, is faithful delineatOr OF
the natural history of his country.
What an observing eye must have
gathered this image:
"He has a solid base of temperament:
But a. the watcr-lily starts and slides
Upon the level in little pufIs of wind,
Though anchored TO the bottom. such is he"
And how prettily he expresses the
old idea that Mature is all things to all
men" in these truthful lines:
what we call Nature all outside ourselves,
Il but our own conceit Of whas We see.
Our own reaction upon what We feel"
Walt Whitman, rugged and rough
Son of Pan who, as he says:
Loved to lean and loaf at mine ease
Regarding spray OF summer grass,
Had keen eye for every aspect of
Nature; he watched the flowers and the
birds, and noted in his long
lines:
where the heifers browse-where geese nip their
food with short jerks;
Where suniOwn shadows lengthen over the
limitless and lonesome prairie;
Where the humming bird shimmers-where the
neck Of the long-lived swan Is curving and
winding"
But amongst all our American poets,
hrely LOngfellow most closely walked
With nature hand in hand" To use
ais own words
"All the many sounds of nature
Borrowed sweetness from his singing"
"a good heart and poetic imagina-
gon made his life joyous and the world
beautiful" 1t would Seem that it WAS
s,ue of himself what he wrote of Agassiz:
"Aud Nature, the old nurse took
The child upon her knee.
Saving: here IS the stor. book
Thy Father has written for thee"
His Poets Calendar" is a success
sion of glowing madrigals upon the
months, as he watched the gentle
progression of herbs, flowers and trees
and brooded over them in his loving
heart.
Read his description of the Water
Lily:
White Water-lily, Graded and caresei
BY ocean streams, and nom the silt and weeds
Sitting thy golden tilsments and seeds
Thy sun-illumined spires, thy crown and crest"
And what can compare with his lines
criptive of spring?
Then came the lovely spring with rush OF
blossoms and music.
the earth with flowers and the air with
melodies vernal."
Or this, with which our paper must
lose:
AT Prntecost which brings
The spring, clothed like bride,
When nesting buds unfold their wings
And BishOp-caps have golden rings,
! sought the woodland wide"