rural districts of New England. On the death
of a member of the family, the bees were at once informed of the event,
and their hives dressed in mourning. The ceremonial was supposed to be
necessary to prevent the swarms from leaving their hives and seeking a
new home." This poem of Whittier's is almost his highest achievement.
Lowell said, in writing of the Quaker poet (Appleton's Cyclopedia of
American Biography, VI.): "Many of his poems (such for example as
'Telling the Bees'), in which description and sentiment mutually inspire
each other, are as fine as any in the language." I often think, however,
that Whittier will live longest by his hymns and poems of purely
religious devotion. I know of nothing similar in English that surpasses
"The Eternal Goodness," and perhaps half a dozen other poems.

_Katie._--About one-third of Timrod's graceful poem which bears this
title. This is one of the few cases where I have ventured to make
omissions.

_Thalatta._--Regarding this poem, Thomas Wentworth Higginson says, in
"The New World and the New Book:" "Who knows but that, when all else of
American literature has vanished in forgetfulness, some single little
masterpiece like this may remain to show the high-water mark, not merely
of a single poet, but of a nation and a generation?" The author of
"Thalatta" was a Dartmouth graduate, a teacher, and a disciple of
Emerson.

_The Fall of the Leaf._--Thoreau's prose is known universally; his verse
has not won as yet the recognition it deserves. It has little lyrical
quality, but for unconventionality, charming turns of phrase, and the
intimate knowledge of Nature it reveals, it is almost alone in American
poetry.

_The Rhodora._--"The Rhodora" has a conciseness and unity too rare in
Emerson's poetry, which, beautiful in details, is strangely uneven. We
sigh as we think what an unrivalled lyric poet Emerson would have been
had he been sustained at the heights he was capable of reaching. No one
surpasses Emerson at his best; he is almost a great poet.

_The Chambered Nautilus._--Many think this Holmes's finest poem. It is
taken from "The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table," 1858.

_Thought._--Helen Jackson is, perhaps, the most gifted of American women
poets. Emily Dickinson is more imaginative, but her utter scorn of form
in composition makes her work, unique as it is, less satisfying. Mrs.
Jackson was a favorite with Emerson, and he is said to have liked best
among her poems this