st after the death of his contemporaries.

Beginning with a eulogy on his friend Cole, the painter, who died in
1848, he paid his well-considered tributes to the memory of Cooper and
Irving, and assisted at the dedication in the Central Park of the Morse,
Shakespeare, Scott, and Halleck monuments. His addresses on those
occasions, and others that might be named, were models of justice of
appreciation and felicity of expression. His last public appearance was
at the Central Park, on the afternoon of May 29, 1878, at the unveiling
of a statue to Mazzini. It was an unusually hot day, and after
delivering his address, which was remarkable for its eloquence, he
accompanied General James Grant Wilson, an acquaintance of some years'
standing, to his residence in East Seventy-fourth street. General Wilson
reached his door with Mr. Bryant leaning on his arm; he took a step in
advance to open the inner door, and while his back was turned the poet
fell, striking his head on the stone platform of the front steps. It was
his death-blow; for, though he recovered his consciousness sufficiently
to converse a little, and was able to ride to his own house with General
Wilson, his fate was sealed. He lingered until the morning of the 12th
of June, when his capacious spirit passed out into the Unknown. Two days
later all that was mortal of him was buried beside the grave of his wife
at Roslyn.

Such was the life and such the life-work of William Cullen Bryant.

R. H. STODDARD.

TO THE READER.

The poems in this volume follow each other in the order in which they
were written, it being believed that this arrangement would be as
satisfactory to the reader as any classification founded on the nature
of the subjects or their mode of treatment.

CONTENTS.

POEMS: PAGE
The Ages 11
Thanatopsis 21
The Yellow Violet 23
Inscription for the Entrance to a Wood 24
Song 26
To a Waterfowl 26
Green River 27
A Winter Piece 29
The West Wind