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 di 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 Grongar Hill Letter on Certain Trees. A Sketch... An English Peasant's Cottage Ruth Simple Pleasures ...... IX. Medley. 157 From "The Complete Angler”. 164 166 161 The Milk-Maid's Song 162 The Milk-Maid's Mother's Answer... 167 163 The Solitary Reaper.. 168 169 168 The Husbandman. 164 The Garden of Aleinous The Garden of Eden.. Of Gardens.... Gardening The Birch-Tree.. Mulopotmos; or, the Fate of the But- terflie On a Locust. To the Cicada... The Grasshopper. A Wood in Winter 187 188 189 191 192 198 202 208 204 205 205 205 207 208 208 209 217 218 219 219 220 222 228 224 224 |