Preface. THE a HE selections contained in this volume are such as relate to one subject only—that of country life. But this, in itself, is a very wide sphere, and offers in its many different fields, old and new, all the variety that the most capricious spirit could desire. In collecting the different passages, the editor has allowed herself a wide sweep of the net; it has been her aim to bring together many beautiful passages from the best writers, iningled with others interesting rather from their quaintness and oddity, or their antiquity. With this view, not only have the poets of our own tongue, ancient and modern, English and American, been laid under contribution for the reader's amusement, but translations from a dozen different languages have also been included in the volume. Materials for a work of this nature abound, and the editor
would have gladly drawn even more largely from the “ Dono infelice di bellezza, ond’ hai Funesta dota d' infiniti guai.” In this instance their very absence will serve to recall The Return of Spring in Greece.... Ode to Spring 63 The Flower. 64 Ode 64 To Spring. 65 To Spring 65 Spring.. 66 Ode 66 The Awakening Year 69 Spring Scene. 69 Spring 70 Morning Melodies.. Morning Walk Hymn... Morning Spring Morning in Italy. 80 Up, Amaryllis !. 81 The Morning Walk. 81 Danish Morning Song 83 Summer Morning Song 81 85 86 87 88 129 Pastoral Scene from “ The Arcadia”.. 121 Sheep Pastures.. From the “ Faithful Shepherdegg" 122 The Spinner's Song. The Shepherd's Life......... 122 Song for the Spinning-Wheel. To Primroses. 156 Grongar Hill Letter on Certain Trees. A Sketch... An English Peasant's Cottage Ruth Simple Pleasures IX. Medley. 157 From “The Complete Angler” ...... 164 161 The Milk-Maid's Song 166 102 The Milk-Maid's Mother's Answer... 167 163 The Solitary Reaper.. 168 16: The Husbandman.. 169 164 Of the Seminary, and of Transplanting 196 The Oak..... The Groaning Elm of Badesley...... 200 "Leaves have their Time to Fall".... 208 XIV. The Butterily. Muimpotmos; or, the Fate of the Bit- Insects. terdie 227 Flowers and Insects.. On a Locust 238 The Dragon-Fly. To the Cicada.. 238 To an Insect.. The Grasshopper. 239 The Grasshopper. 240 240 241 242 243 |