Evening journal. [volume] (Wilmington, Del.) 1888-1932, 1916-08-12
BAYARD TAYLOR---A Personal Glimpse
By Miss Emma WorralL of Wilmington.
Read Before Delaware College Summer School.

ming, has been lying for 80 years In
Longwood Cemetery. beside the wife
Of his youth, beside the young brother
who CALAMITY fell at Gettysburg. and
the dear old parents. who came years
after, to lie down with them-a re-
united group
Though born in the village, where
his father kept store. on the 18th of
January, 1925, his home from the
time he was two years old was on a
farm-Hazel Dell--just across the
road from Cedarcroft, 20 which his
parents moved. and where all his
brothers and sisters were born There
his childhood was spent in close COM
partnership with nature, learning her
secrets, absorbing her beauties, stor-
ing up impressions and knowledge Of
her ways and workings TO be repro
duced later in his accurate, finely
drawn descriptions. Nobody knew
better than he the trees, and the
wild blossoms of the swamp and mea-
dows. the habits Of the birds and
the shy little creatures Of the woods.
which he knew by voice and name,
and with whom he made friends. The
horses and dogs and the sheep were
all his familiar companions,-"O
Ben" a horse he had lived with from
childhood, was loved like a person,
and was mentioned by name in letters
from distant lands. after he had be-
gun those marvellous travels, which
extended 10 every quarter Of the
globe, and which made him famous
among many strange peoples, as well
as here, at home and in Europe.
No other traveller has made so in
telligent a study OF the various coun-
! tries visited, nor given to the world
SO charming a description Of them as
is contained in his Views A-foot.
the story of his earliest trip to Eur
ope. in India. China and Japan,
''The Land Of the Saracen." up the
| Nile" "By-ways Of Europe" "Eldo-
RADIO Egypt" and all the rest Of
the books about everywhere in the
world almost including Ireland,
which he visited in 1S47, its millen-
NAL anniversary. and wrote a poem
America to Iceland" on this, and
the year Of its existance.
Unsuitable a traveller as he was, and
brilliant a describer of what he saw
he never felt that his greatest work
lay IN that field; it was merely 6
foundation. an educator for his real
| life-interest and labor Literature
poetry was his aim. All forms Of art
appealed to him, and were made ia
contribute to this end. He loved anC
practiced painting. and with some
! success, but the brush was always SUI
perseded by the pen. The nature
lover. the art-student we're but the
worthy landmarks Of the poet. Thai
he was a poet par excellence none
can doubt. who reads and studies his
works. That he was a keen, correct
thinker, a worker. with a practica
energy and a dominating will only
made him the stronger. more viril'
poet. that love of beauty, imagination
? affection and a sunny, sweet trust il
the divine ordering Of things, ha'
prepared him to be. He was like
, workman with a fine chest of tools
which he knew how skilfully to use
His words we're his tools, and he At
ted them cunningly and indesolubly
to his might.
Much as be wrote of poetry, trave
( and novels. CHannah Thurston. Johl
, Godfrey's Fortunes, Joseph and hi
Friends, and others beside The Stor.
Of Kennett," as we'll as numerous po
etical romances, philosophical ant
, thoughtful in character). he yet lef
one great work unwritten, a worl
that had been in heart and mind To-
+ many years-"The Lives Of Goethe
and Schiller" That this was left un
, done must ever be a great regret. 70