nor,
indeed, does any English poet except Pope, so far as we can judge from
his contributions to the _Hampshire Gazette_, which were continued from
time to time. They were bookish and patriotic; one, which was written at
Cummington on the 8th of January, 1810, being "The Genius of Columbia;"
and another, "An Ode for the Fourth of July, 1812," to the tune of "Ye
Gentlemen of England." These productions are undeniably clever, but they
are not characteristic of their writer, nor of the nature which
surrounded his birthplace, with which he was familiar, and of which he
was a close observer, as his poetry was soon to disclose.

He entered Williams College, in Williamstown, Mass., in his sixteenth
year, and remained there until 1812, distinguishing himself for aptness
and industry in classical learning and polite literature. At the end of
two years he withdrew, and commenced the study of law, first with Judge
Howe, of Worthington, and afterward with Mr. William Baylies, of
Bridgewater. So far he had written nothing but clever amateur verse; but
now, in his eighteenth year, he wrote an imperishable poem. The
circumstances under which it was composed have been variously stated,
but they agree in the main particulars, and are thus given in "The
Bryant Homestead Book" (1870), apparently on authentic information: "It
was here at Cummington, while wandering in the primeval forests, over
the floor of which were scattered the gigantic trunks of fallen trees,
mouldering for long years, and suggesting an indefinitely remote
antiquity, and where silent rivulets crept along through the carpet of
dead leaves, the spoil of thousands of summers, that the poem entitled
'Thanatopsis' was composed. The young poet had read the poems of Kirke
White, which, edited by Southey, were published about that time, and a
small volume of Southey's miscellaneous poems; and some lines of those
authors had kindled his imagination, which, going forth over the face of
the inhabitants of the globe, sought to bring under one broad and
comprehensive view the destinies of the human race in the present life,
and the perpetual rising and passing away of generation after generation
who are nourished by the fruits of its soil, and find a resting-place in
its bosom." We should like to know what lines in Southey and Kirke White
suggested "Thanatopsis," that they might be printed in letters of gold
hereafter.

When the young poet quitted Cummington to begin his law stu