he ear; that it appeals to the feelings more than to the
will; that it must be interpreted by the light of experience, and hence
must be adapted to the age of the reader. A person would not read _The
Reaper and the Flowers_ at a dancing party, nor _The Elegy on the Death
of a Mad Dog_ before a funeral.

Below are a few studies more complete and of different types.

_The Brown Thrush_

(Volume I, page 147)

We find great charm in this short lyric, for its form is unusual, its
music joyous and its sentiment fine. Three lines of four feet each, a
line of three feet, two lines of two feet each, and one line of three
feet make up each stanza. The accent in each foot is on the last
syllable, but some of the feet are only two syllables long. It's a merry
meter. It scarcely can be read without stirring a rollicking melody in
the ears of the listener. That's the art in the poem. The sentiment is
as fine as the music. "The world's running over with joy! I'm as happy
as happy can be." If the little brown thrush keeps singing that song the
heart of everyone who hears it will overflow with joy. But it would be
easy, very easy indeed, to stop the joyous song of the thrush by
meddling with the five pretty eggs, and when the thrush changed his
happy song to harsh notes of fear and reproach, the light of joy would
fade from our day as quickly as from his.

_The Child's World_

(Volume II, page 66)

The unique measures of this brief poem make a melodious whole that every
child will appreciate. Unless some care is taken in reading it aloud,
however, much of its beauty will be lost. This is particularly true of
the first stanza, from the first and last lines of which a syllable has
been omitted. The absence of these syllables must be indicated by pauses
or by giving more time to the word "great" in the first line, and to the
word "world" in the last line. The idea may be indicated by supposing
that the word "O" has been omitted from the beginning of the first and
last line. The first line of the last couplet is peculiar in that every
one of the four feet contains three syllables with the accent on the
last. All the other lines consist each of four feet of either two or
three syllables. Technically the poem is anapestic tetrameter much
varied by the introduction of iambic feet. (See the studies in meter,
Volume VII, pages 2 and 13.)

The rhymes are all in couplets and are perfect. The stanzas, like
paragraphs, indicate changes