oem and prose,--
Just conceive of a Muse with a ring in her nose!"

Had Willis written more such lyrics as "Unseen Spirits," his fame could
hardly have proved so ephemeral. Poe considered this poem Willis's best,
and I see no ground for calling the critic's judgment in question.

_To Helen._--This brief lyric, written in the poet's youth, is not only
among the most exquisite from his pen, but it furnishes one of the most
famous among current quotations:

"The glory that was Greece,
And the grandeur that was Rome."

_On the Death of Joseph Rodman Drake._--These manly lines have yielded
another phrase to the world's memory. Hardly any quotation is more
hackneyed than the last two verses of the first stanza. Drake was a
young poet, the intimate friend and literary co-laborer of Halleck, who
died September, 1820, in his twenty-fifth year.

_To the Fringed Gentian._--This lyric well illustrates what Mr. Stedman
has aptly termed Bryant's "Doric simplicity." Nothing of Wordsworth's is
freer from ornament or from the least trace of affectation.

_The Raven._--Though not belonging to the highest order of poetry, "The
Raven" still maintains its position at the head of its class. No more
astonishing _tour de force_ can be found in English literature.

_Nature._--Generally regarded, I think, the finest of Longfellow's, if
not of American, sonnets.

_Ichabod._--Occasioned by the defection and fall of Daniel Webster. It
is worthy a place by the side of Browning's "Lost Leader." In later
years, Whittier wrote a poem on the theme, which, while not a retraction
of his former position, is penned in a tenderer, more tolerant mood,
"The Lost Occasion" is its title, and it is only just to the poet to
read this second lyric, hardly less successful, in connection with the
first.

_Old Ironsides._--"Old Ironsides" was the popular name for the frigate
_Constitution_. Dr. Holmes's poem appeared in the Boston _Advertiser_
"at the time when it was proposed to break up the old ship as unfit for
service."

_Bedouin Song._--One of the most spirited, most genuinely lyrical of
American poems.

_Skipper Ireson's Ride._--These lines have an easy, swinging quality
that is quite inimitable. One inclines to agree with Mr. Stedman: "Of
all our poets he (Whittier) is the most natural balladist."

_The Village Blacksmith._--The directness and homely strength of "The
Village Blacksmith" have made it deservedly popular. One questions
whethe