Smyrna times., 1894-04-25
TALKS ON AMERICAN LITERATURE.
(Concluded.)

(Prof, YOcum has prepared series of article
on American literature which will be supple
mented by numerous selections from the works
of standard writer's 1t is believed that such a
course of reading while primarily designed for
the pupils of the public schools may prove in
teresting to the general public)
Says Curtis, "Bryant's fame as poet
was made half a century before he died,
and the additions to his earlier verses,
while they did not lessen, did not ma
terially increase, his reputation" The
writer of "Thanatopsis" did not need
fresh laurels in his wreath. Yet at
times, dreaming in lighter vein Of
"The hills,
Rock ribbed and ancient as the sun; the wales
Stretching in pensiye quietness between;
The venerable woods; rivers that move
In majesty, and the complaining brooks
That make the meadows green; and, poured
round all
Old oceans gray and melancholy was."-
they are no longer "but the solemn
decorations all of the great tomb of
man." but the hills are bright with
May, "the thrush with crimson breast"
sings in the trees, and old oceans bears
ito coasts that lie afar" fruit that"red-
dened in the August noon"
Mature, as he said in"Thanatopsis," ,"
speaks "a various language to her
lovers. But what she said to him was
plainly spoken and clearly heard and
perfectly peated.-( CurtiS.)
Has he not made us feel all the
poetry that thrilled him through and
through as he planted the apple-tree
THE PLANTING OF THE APPLE-TREE.
l. Come, let US plant the apple-tree!
Cleave the tough greensward with the spade:
Wide let its hollow bed be made;
There gently lay the roots. and there
Silt the dark mould with kindly care,
And press it Ov'r them tenderly,
As round the sleeping infants feet
We softly fold the cradle sheet;
So plant we the apple-tree
2. What plant we in this appletree?
Buds, which the breath of summer days
Shall lengthen into leafy sprays;
BOughS where the thrush with crimson breast
Shall haunt and sing and hide her nest
We plant upon the sunny lea
A shadow from the nOontide hour,
A shelter from the summer shower
When we plant the apple-tree.
3. What plant We in this appe-tree?
Sweet for a hundred tlOwery springs
To load the May-wind's restless wings,
When from the orchard-row he pOurs
It's fragrance through our open doors.
A world OF blossoms for the bee,
Flowers for the sick girls silent room,
For the glad infant springs of bloom
We plant with the apple-tree
f. What plant we in this apple-tree
Fruits that shall swell in sunny June
And redden in the August noon,
And drop when gentle airs comes by
That fan the blue September sky
While children wild with noisy glee
Shall scent their fragrance as they pass
And search for them the tufted grass
At the foot of the apple-tree.
8, And when above this apple-tree
The winter stars are quivering bright,
And the winds go bowling through the night,
Girls whose young eyes o'ertlOw with mirth
Shall peel its fruit by cottage hearth;
And guests in prouder home shall see:
Heaped with the orange and the grape
As fair as they in tint and shape,
The fruit of the Opple-tree.
6. The fruitage of this apple-tree
Winds and our flag of fstripe and star
Shall bear to coasts that lie afAr.
Where men shall wonder at the view
And ask in what fair groves they grew;
And they who roam beyond the sea
Shall think of childhOOds careless day
And long hours passed in summer play
In the shade of the apple-tree.
:. But time shall waste this apple-tree
Oh when its aged branches throw
Their shadows on the world below
Shall fraud and force and iron will
Cypress the weak and helpless still?
What shall the task of mercy be
Amid the tolls, the strifes, the tears
OF those who live when length of years
Is wasting this apple-tTee?
8. "WhO planted this old apple.tree?
The children of that distant day
Thus to some aged man shall say;
And, gazing on its mOSsy stem,
The gray-haired man shall answer them
"A poet of the land was he,
Born in the rude but good old times;
said o1h Nh
On ylanting the apple-tree."
Although Bryant's dignified verse il
perhaps too i'll suited to epic poetry
his translation of Homer's Iliad is il
many respects the best yet made. Il
is, however, as natures lover and in
terpreter that he takes first place amonj
the poets.
In 1878, after an eloquent tribute t
the Italian patriot Mazzini, who's
statue had just been unveiled in Cen
tral Park, Bryant stricken witt
paralysis, land while his words We
fingered in the ears of those who hear(
him, he passed from human sight"