Thy Marathon and thy Thermopylæ?
Is my life vulgar, my fate mean, Which on such golden memories can lean?
THE FUNERAL BELL One more is gone Out of the busy throng That tread these paths; The church-bell tolls, Its sad knell rolls To many hearths.
Flower-bells toll not, Their echoes roll not Upon my ear; There still, perchance, That gentle spirit haunts A fragrant bier.
Low lies the pall, Lowly the mourners all Their passage grope; No sable hue Mars the serene blue Of heaven's cope.
In distant dell Faint sounds the funeral bell; A heavenly chime; Some poet there Weaves the light-burthened air Into sweet rhyme.
THE MOON Time wears her not; she doth his chariot guide; Mortality below her orb is placed.
RALEIGH.
The full-orbed moon with unchanged ray Mounts up the eastern sky, Not doomed to these short nights for aye, But shining steadily.
She does not wane, but my fortune, Which her rays do not bless; My wayward path declineth soon, But she shines not the less.
And if she faintly glimmers here, And palèd is her light, Yet alway in her proper sphere She's mistress of the night.
THE FALL OF THE LEAF[12] Thank God who seasons thus the year, And sometimes kindly slants his rays; For in his winter he's most near And plainest seen upon the shortest days.
Who gently tempers now his heats.
And then his harsher cold, lest we Should surfeit on the summer's sweets, Or pine upon the winter's crudity.
A sober mind will walk alone, Apart from nature, if need be, And only its own seasons own: For nature leaving its humanity.
Sometimes a late autumnal thought Has crossed my mind in green July, And to its early freshness brought Late ripened fruits, and an autumnal sky.
The evening of the year draws on, The fields a later aspect wear; Since Summer's garishness is gone, Some grains of night tincture the noontide air.
Behold! the shadows of the trees Now circle wider 'bout their stem, Like sentries that by slow degrees Perform their rounds, gently protecting them.
And as the year doth decline, The sun allows a scantier light; Behind each needle of the pine There lurks a small auxiliar to the night.
I hear the cricket's slumbrous lay Around, beneath me, and on high; It rocks the night, it soothes the day, And everywhere is Nature's lullaby.
But most he chirps beneath the sod, When he has made his winter bed; His creak grown fainter but more broad, A film of autumn o'er the summer spread.
Small birds, in fleets migrating by, Now beat across some meadow's bay, And as they tack and veer on high, With faint and hurried click beguile the way.
Far in the woods, these golden days, Some leaf obeys its Maker's call; And through their hollow aisles it plays With delicate touch the prelude of the Fall.
Gently withdrawing from its stem, It lightly lays itself along Where the same hand hath pillowed them, Resigned to sleep upon the old year's throng.
The loneliest birch is brown and sere, The farthest pool is strewn with leaves, Which float upon their watery bier, Where is no eye that sees, no heart that grieves.
The jay screams through the chestnut wood; The crisped and yellow leaves around Are hue and texture of my mood, And these rough burs my heirlooms on the ground.
The threadbare trees, so poor and thin, They are no wealthier than I; But with as brave a core within They rear their boughs to the October sky.
Poor knights they are which bravely wait The charge of Winter's cavalry, Keeping a simple Roman state, Discumbered of their Persian luxury.
THE THAW I saw the civil sun drying earth's tears, Her tears of joy that only faster flowed.[13] Fain would I stretch me by the highway-side To thaw and trickle with the melting snow; That mingled, soul and body, with the tide, I too may through the pores of nature flow.
A WINTER SCENE[14] The rabbit leaps, The mouse out-creeps, The flag out-peeps Beside the brook; The ferret weeps, The marmot sleeps, The owlet keeps In his snug nook.
The apples thaw, The ravens caw, The squirrels gnaw The frozen fruit.
To their retreat I track the feet Of mice that eat The apple's root.
The snow-dust falls, The otter crawls, The partridge calls, Far in the wood.
The traveler dreams, The tree-ice gleams, The blue jay screams In angry mood.
The willows droop, The alders stoop, The pheasants group Beneath the snow.
The catkins green Cast o'er the scene A summer's sheen, A genial glow.
TO A STRAY FOWL Poor bird! destined to lead thy life Far in the adventurous west, And here to be debarred to-night From thy accustomed nest; Must thou fall back upon old instinct now, Well-nigh extinct under man's fickle care?
Did heaven bestow its quenchless inner light, So long ago, for thy small want to-night?
Why stand'st upon thy toes to crow so late?
The moon is deaf to thy low feathered fate; Or dost thou think so to possess the night, And people the drear dark with thy brave sprite?
And now with anxious eye thou look'st about, While the relentless shade draws on its veil, For some sure shelter from approaching dews, And the insidious steps of nightly foes.
I fear imprisonment has dulled thy wit, Or ingrained servitude extinguished it.
But no; dim memory of the days of yore, By Brahmapootra and the Jumna's shore, Where thy proud race flew swiftly o'er the heath, And sought its food the jungle's shade beneath, Has taught thy wings to seek yon friendly trees, As erst by Indus' banks and far Ganges.
POVERTY A FRAGMENT If I am poor, It is that I am proud; If God has made me naked and a boor, He did not think it fit his work to shroud.
The poor man comes direct from heaven to earth, As stars drop down the sky, and tropic beams; The rich receives in our gross air his birth, As from low suns are slanted golden gleams.
Yon sun is naked, bare of satellite, Unless our earth and moon that office hold; Though his perpetual day feareth no night, And his perennial summer dreads no cold.
Mankind may delve, but cannot my wealth spend; If I no partial wealth appropriate, No armèd ships unto the Indies send, None robs me of my Orient estate.
PILGRIMS "Have you not seen, In ancient times, Pilgrims pass by Toward other climes, With shining faces, Youthful and strong, Mounting this hill With speech and with song?"
"Ah, my good sir, I know not those ways; Little my knowledge, Tho' many my days.
When I have slumbered, I have heard sounds As of travelers passing These my grounds.
"'T was a sweet music Wafted them by, I could not tell If afar off or nigh.
Unless I dreamed it, This was of yore: I never told it To mortal before, Never remembered But in my dreams What to me waking A miracle seems."
THE DEPARTURE In this roadstead I have ridden, In this covert I have hidden; Friendly thoughts were cliffs to me, And I hid beneath their lee.
This true people took the stranger, And warm-hearted housed the ranger; They received their roving guest, And have fed him with the best; Whatsoe'er the land afforded To the stranger's wish accorded; Shook the olive, stripped the vine, And expressed the strengthening wine.
And by night they did spread o'er him What by day they spread before him;-- That good-will which was repast Was his covering at last.
The stranger moored him to their pier Without anxiety or fear; By day he walked the sloping land, By night the gentle heavens he scanned.
When first his bark stood inland To the coast of that far Finland, Sweet-watered brooks came tumbling to the shore The weary mariner to restore.
And still he stayed from day to day If he their kindness might repay; But more and more The sullen waves came rolling toward the shore.
And still the more the stranger waited, The less his argosy was freighted, And still the more he stayed, The less his debt was paid.
So he unfurled his shrouded mast To receive the fragrant blast; And that sane refreshing gale Which had wooed him to remain Again and again, It was that filled his sail And drove him to the main.
All day the low-hung clouds Dropt tears into the sea; And the wind amid the shrouds Sighed plaintively.
INDEPENDENCE[15] My life more civil is and free Than any civil polity.
Ye princes, keep your realms And circumscribèd power, Not wide as are my dreams, Nor rich as is this hour.
What can ye give which I have not?
What can ye take which I have got?
Can ye defend the dangerless?
Can ye inherit nakedness?
To all true wants Time's ear is deaf, Penurious states lend no relief Out of their pelf: Can help itself.
Be sure your fate Doth keep apart its state, Not linked with any band, Even the noblest of the land; In tented fields with cloth of gold No place doth hold, But is more chivalrous than they are, And sigheth for a nobler war; A finer strain its trumpet sings, A brighter gleam its armor flings.
The life that I aspire to live No man proposeth me; No trade upon the street[16] Wears its emblazonry.
DING DONG[17] When the world grows old by the chimney-side Then forth to the youngling nooks I glide, Where over the water and over the land The bells are booming on either hand.
Now up they go ding, then down again dong, And awhile they ring to the same old song, For the metal goes round at a single bound, A-cutting the fields with its measured sound, While the tired tongue falls with a lengthened boom As solemn and loud as the crack of doom.
Then changed is their measure to tone upon tone, And seldom it is that one sound comes alone, For they ring out their peals in a mingled throng, And the breezes waft the loud ding-dong along.
When the echo hath reached me in this lone vale, I am straightway a hero in coat of mail, I tug at my belt and I march on my post, And feel myself more than a match for a host.
OMNIPRESENCE Who equaleth the coward's haste, And still inspires the faintest heart; Whose lofty fame is not disgraced, Though it assume the lowest part.
INSPIRATION If thou wilt but stand by my ear, When through the field thy anthem's rung, When that is done I will not fear But the same power will abet my tongue.
MISSION I've searched my faculties around, To learn why life to me was lent: I will attend the faintest sound, And then declare to man what God hath meant.
DELAY No generous action can delay Or thwart our higher, steadier aims; But if sincere and true are they, It will arouse our sight, and nerve our frames.
PRAYER Great God! I ask thee for no meaner pelf Than that I may not disappoint myself; That in my action I may soar as high As I can now discern with this clear eye; And next in value, which thy kindness lends, That I may greatly disappoint my friends, Howe'er they think or hope it that may be, They may not dream how thou 'st distinguished me; That my weak hand may equal my firm faith, And my life practice more than my tongue saith; That my low conduct may not show, Nor my relenting lines, That I thy purpose did not know, Or overrated thy designs.
FOOTNOTES: [8] [Eighteen lines of this poem appear in _Week_, pp. 181, 182, 351, 372.]
[9] ["Suggested by the print of Guido's 'Aurora' sent by Mrs. Carlyle as a wedding gift to Mrs. Emerson." (Note in _Poems of Nature_.)]
[10] [Five stanzas of this poem appear in _Week_, pp. 46, 47.]
[11] [The last four lines appear in _Week_, p. 54.]
[12] ["The first four of these stanzas (unnamed by Thoreau) were published in the Boston _Commonwealth_ in 1863, under the title of 'The Soul's Season,' the remainder as 'The Fall of the Leaf.' There can be little doubt that they are parts of one complete poem." (Note in _Poems of Nature_.)]
[13] [See p. 120.]
[14] ["These stanzas formed part of the original manuscript of the essay on 'A Winter Walk,' but were excluded by Emerson." (Note in [15] ["First printed in full in the Boston _Commonwealth_, October 30, 1863. The last fourteen lines had appeared in _The Dial_ under the title of 'The Black Knight,' and are so reprinted in the Riverside Edition." (Note in _Poems of Nature_.)]
[16] [In _The Dial_ this line reads, "Only the promise of my heart."]
[17] ["A copy of this hitherto unpublished poem has been kindly furnished by Miss A. J. Ward." (Note in _Poems of Nature_.)]
A LIST OF THE POEMS AND BITS OF VERSE SCATTERED AMONG THOREAU'S PROSE WRITINGS EXCLUSIVE OF THE JOURNAL * * * * * A WEEK ON THE CONCORD AND MERRIMACK RIVERS "The respectable folks" PAGE 7 "Ah, 't is in vain the peaceful din" 15 "But since we sailed" 16 "Here then an aged shepherd dwelt" 16 "On Ponkawtasset, since we took our way" 16 "Who sleeps by day and walks by night" 41 "An early unconverted Saint" 42 "Low in the eastern sky" (TO THE MAIDEN IN THE EAST) 46 "Dong, sounds the brass in the East" 50 "Greece, who am I that should remember thee" 54 "Some tumultuous little rill" 62 "I make ye an offer" 69 "Conscience is instinct bred in the house" (CONSCIENCE) 75 "Such water do the gods distill" 86 "That Phaeton of our day" 103 "Then spend an age in whetting thy desire" 111 "Though all the fates should prove unkind" 151 "With frontier strength ye stand your ground" (MOUNTAINS) 170 "The western wind came lumbering in" 180 "Then idle Time ran gadding by" 181 "Now chiefly is my natal hour" 182 RUMORS FROM AN ÆOLIAN HARP 184 "Away! away! away! away!" 186 "Ply the oars! away! away!" (RIVER SONG, part) 188 "Since that first 'Away! away!'" (RIVER SONG, part) 200 "Low-anchored cloud" (MIST) 201 "Man's little acts are grand" 224 "Our uninquiring corpses lie more low" 227 "The waves slowly beat" 229 "Woof of the sun, ethereal gauze" (HAZE) 229 "Where gleaming fields of haze" 234 TRANSLATIONS FROM ANACREON 240 "Thus, perchance, the Indian hunter" (BOAT SONG) 247 "My life is like a stroll upon the beach" (THE FISHER'S BOY) 255 "This is my Carnac, whose unmeasured dome" 267 "True kindness is a pure divine affinity" 275 "Lately, alas, I knew a gentle boy" (SYMPATHY) 276 THE ATLANTIDES 278 "My love must be as free" (FREE LOVE) 297 "The Good how can we trust?" 298 "Nature doth have her dawn each day" 302 "Let such pure hate still underprop" (FRIENDSHIP) 305 "Men are by birth equal in this, that given" 311 The Inward Morning 313 "My books I'd fain cast off, I cannot read" (THE SUMMER RAIN) 320 "My life has been the poem I would have writ" 365 THE POET'S DELAY 366 "I hearing get, who had but ears" 372 "Men dig and dive but cannot my wealth spend" 373 "Salmon Brook" 375 "Oft, as I turn me on my pillow o'er" 384 "I am the autumnal sun" (NATURE'S CHILD) 404 "A finer race and finer fed" 407 "I am a parcel of vain strivings tied" (SIC VITA) 410 "All things are current found" 415 WALDEN "Men say they know many things" 46 "What's the railroad to me?" 135 "It is no dream of mine" 215 "Light-winged Smoke, Icarian bird" (SMOKE) 279 THE MAINE WOODS "Die and be buried who will" 88 EXCURSIONS "Within the circuit of this plodding life" (WINTER MEMORIES) 103 "We pronounce thee happy, Cicada" (from Anacreon) 108 "His steady sails he never furls" 109 RETURN OF SPRING (from Anacreon) 109 "Each summer sound" 112 "Sometimes I hear the veery's clarion" 112 "Upon the lofty elm tree sprays" (THE VIREO) 112 "Thou dusky spirit of the wood" (THE CROW) 113 "I see the civil sun drying earth's tears" (THE THAW, part) 120 "The river swelleth more and more" (A RIVER SCENE) 120 "The needles of the pine" 133 "With frontier strength ye stand your ground" (MOUNTAINS) 133 "Not unconcerned Wachusett rears his head" 144 "The sluggish smoke curls up from some deep dell" (SMOKE IN WINTER) 165 "When Winter fringes every bough" (STANZAS WRITTEN AT WALDEN) 176 THE OLD MARLBOROUGH ROAD 214 "In two years' time 't had thus" 303 INDEX Achilles, The Youth of, translation, 385.
Acre, an, as long measure, 60.
Acton (Mass.), 136.
Æschylus, The Prometheus Bound of, translation, 337-375.
Æsculapius, translation, 380.
Agriculture, the task of Americans, 229-231.
Ajax, The Treatment of, translation, 387.
Alphonse, Jean, and Falls of Montmorenci, 38, 39; quoted, 91.
America, superiorities of, 220-224.
American, money in Quebec, 24; the, and government, 82, 83.
Amphiaraus, The Death of, translation, 387.
Andropogons, or beard-grasses, 225-258.
Ange Gardien Parish, 42; church of, 46.
Angler's Souvenir, the, 119.
Apollo, translation, 383.
Apple, history of the tree, 290-298; the wild, 299, 300; growth of the wild, 302-308; cropped by cattle, 303-307; the fruit and flavor of the, 308-314; beauty of the, 314, 315; naming of the, 315-317; last gleaning of the, 317-319; dying out of the wild, 321, 322.
Apple-howling, 298.
Arpent, the, 60.
Ashburnham (Mass.), 3; with a better house than any in Canada, 100.
Ash trees, 6.
Assabet, the, 136.
Audubon, John James, reading, 103; 109, note; 112, note.
Aurora of Guido, The, verse, 399.
Autumn foliage, brightness of, 249-252.
AUTUMNAL TINTS, 249-289.
Bartram, William, quoted, 199.
Bathing feet in brooks, 140.
Beard-grasses, andropogons or, 255-258.
Beauport (Que.), and _le Chemin de_, 30; getting lodgings in, 35-38; church in, 69; Seigniory of, 96.
Beaupré, Seigniory of the Côte de, 41.
"Behold, how spring appearing," verse, 109.
Bellows Falls (Vt.), 5.
Birch, yellow, 6.
Birds and mountains, 149.
Bittern, booming of the, 111.
Black Knight, The, verse, 415, note.
Blueberries, and milk, supper of, 144.
Bluebird, the, 110.
Bobolink, the, 113.
Bodæus, quoted, 317.
Bolton (Mass.), 137.
Bonsecours Market (Montreal), 11.
Books on natural history, reading, 103-105.
Boots, Canadian, 51.
Boucher, quoted, 91.
Boucherville (Que.), 20.
Bouchette, Topographical Description of the Canadas, quoted, 41, Bout de l'Isle, 20.
Brand's Popular Antiquities quoted, 297, 298.
Bravery of science, the, 106, 107.
"Brother, where dost thou dwell?" verse, 403.
Burlington (Vt.), 7, 99.
Burton, Sir Richard Francis, 228.
Butternut tree, 6.
Cabs, Montreal, 18; Quebec, 69, 70.
Caddis-worms, 170.
Caen, Emery de, quoted, 52.
Caleche, the (see Cabs), 69, 70.
Canada, apparently older than the United States, 80, 81; population of, 81, 82; the French in, a nation of peasants, 82.
_Canadense_, _Iter_, and the word, 101.
Canadian, French, 9; horses, 34; women, 34; atmosphere, 34; love of neighborhood, 42, 43; houses, 44, 59; clothes, 45; salutations, 47; vegetables and trees, 47, 48; boots, 51; tenures, 63, 64.
Cane, a straight and a twisted, 184, 185.
Cap aux Oyes, 93.
Cape Diamond, 22, 40; signal-gun on, 85; the view from, 88.
Cape Rosier, 92.
Cape Rouge, 21, 95.
Cartier, Jacques, 7, and the St. Lawrence, 89-91; quoted, 97, 98, 99.
Castor and Pollux, translation, 388.
Cattle-show, men at, 184.
Cemetery of fallen leaves, 269, 270.
Chaleurs, the Bay of, 90.
Chalmers, Dr., in criticism of Coleridge, 324.
Chambly (Que.), 11.
Champlain, Samuel, quoted, 8; whales in map of, 91.
Charlevoix, quoted, 52, 91.
Château Richer, church of, 46, 49; lodgings at, 59.
Chaucer, quoted, 159, 160.
Chaudière River, the, 21; Falls of the, 69, 70.
Cheap men, 29, 30.
Cherry-stones, transported by birds, 188.
Chickadee, the, 108.
Chien, La Rivière au, 56.
Churches, Catholic and Protestant, 12-14; roadside, 46.
Canadian, 45.
Colors, names and joy of, 273-275.
Concord River, the, 115, 139.
Crickets, the creaking of, 108.
Crookneck squash seeds, Quebec, 87.
Crosses, roadside, 45, 46.
Crow, the, 108; not imported from Europe, 113.
Crystalline botany, 126, 127.
Culm, bloom in the, 253.
Darby, William, quoted, 93, 94.
Delay, verse, 418.
Departure, The, verse, 414.
Ding Dong, verse, 417.
Dogs in harness, 30.
Drake, Sir Francis, quoted, 325.
Dubartas, quoted, translation of Sylvester, 328, 329.
Ducks, 110.
"Each summer sound," verse, 112.
East Main, Labrador and, health in the words, 104.
Easterbrooks Country, the, 299, 303.
Edda, the Prose, quoted, 291.
Eggs, a master in cooking, 61, 62.
Elysium, translation, 375.
Emerson, George B., quoted, 200.
English and French in the New World, 66, 67.
Entomology, the study of, 107, 108.
Evelyn, John, quoted, 310, 311.
_Ex Oriente Lux; ex Occidente Frux_, 221.
Experiences, the paucity of men's, 241, 242.
Eyes, the sight of different men's 285-288.
Fall of the Leaf, The, verse, 407.
Fallen Leaves, 264-270.
Falls, a drug of, 58.
Fame, translation, 378.
Fish, spearing, 119, 121-123.
Fisher, the pickerel, 180, 181.
Fishes, described in Massachusetts Report, 118.
Fitchburg (Mass.), 3.
Foreign country, quickly in a, 31.
Forests, nations preserved by, 229.
Fortifications, ancient and modern, 77, 78.
Fox, the, 117.
French, difficulties in talking, 35-37, 47; strange, 50; pure, 52; in the New World, English and, 66-68; in Canada, 81, 82; the, spoken in Quebec streets, 86, 87.
Friends, The Value of, translation, 387.
Froissart, good place to read, 23.
Frost-smoke, 166.
Funeral Bell, The, verse, 405.
Fur Countries, inspiring neighborhood of the, 105.
Garget, poke or, 253-255.
Geese, first flock of, 110.
Gesner, Konrad von, quoted, 318.
Gosse, P. A., Canadian Naturalist, 91.
Great Brook, 137.
Great Fields, the, 257.
"Great God! I ask thee for no meaner pelf," verse, 418.
Great River, the, or St. Lawrence, 89, 90, 91, 92.
Greece, verse, 404.
Greece, The Freedom of, translation, 390.
Grey, the traveler, quoted, 94.
Grippling for apples, 309.
Gulls, 110.
Guyot, Arnold, 93; Harvard (Mass.), 151, 152.
"Have you not seen," verse, 413.
Hawk, fish, 110.
Head, Sir Francis, quoted, 47, 221, 222.
Height of Glory, The, translation,384.
Hercules, names the Hill of Kronos, translation, 377.
Hercules' Prayer concerning Ajax, son of Telamon, translation, 390.
Herrick, Robert, 298.
Hickory, the, 264, 265.
"His steady sails he never furls," verse, 109.
Homer, quoted, 181.
Hoosac Mountains, 147.
Hop, culture of the, 136, 137.
Horses, Canadian, 34.
House, the perfect, 153.
Houses, Canadian, 44, 59; American compared with Canadian, 100.
Humboldt, Alexander von, 92, 93.
Hunt House, the old, 201.
Hypseus' Daughter Cyrene, translation, 383.
"I saw the civil sun drying earth's tears," verse, 409.
"I see the civil sun drying earth's tears," verse, 120.
Ice, the booming of, 176.
"If I am poor," verse, 412.
"If thou wilt but stand by my ear," verse, 418.
"If with light head erect I sing," verse, 396.
Ignorance, Society for the Diffusion of Useful, 239.
Imitations of Charette drivers, Yankee, 99.
"In this roadstead I have ridden," verse, 414.
"In two years' time 't had thus," verse, 303.
Independence, verse, 415.
Indoors, living, 207-209.
Inn, inscription on wall of Swedish, 141.
Inspiration, quatrain, 418.
Inspiration, verse, 396.
Invertebrate Animals, Report on, quoted, 129.
"I've searched my faculties around," verse, 418.
Jay, the, 108, 199.
Jesuit Relations, quoted, 96.
Jesuits' Barracks, the, in Quebec, 24.
Joel, the prophet, quoted, 322.
Jonson, Ben, quoted, 226.
Josselyn, John, quoted, 2.
Kalm, Swedish traveler, quoted, 21, 30, 39, 65; on sea-plants near Quebec, 93.
heads like, 4.
Kent, the Duke of, property of, 38.
Killington Peak, 6.
Knowledge, the slow growth of, 181; Society for the Diffusion of Useful, 239; true, 240.
Labrador and East Main, health in the words, 104.
Lake, a woodland, in winter, 174, 175.
Lake Champlain, 6-8.
Lake St. Peter, 96, 97.
Lalement, Hierosme, quoted, 22.
LANDLORD, THE, 153-162.
Landlord, qualities of the, 153-162.
La Prairie (Que.), 11, 18, 99.
Lark, the, 109, 110.
Lead, rain of, 26.
Leaves, fallen, 264-270; scarlet oak, 278-281.
Lincoln (Mass.), 282, 283.
Linnæus, quoted, 222.
Longueuil (Que.), 20.
"Low in the eastern sky," verse, 400.
McCulloch's Geographical Dictionary, quoted, 49.
McTaggart, John, quoted, 94.
MacTavish, Simon, 98.
Man, translation, 383.
Man, The Divine in, translation, 386.
Map, drawing, on kitchen table, 60; of Canada, inspecting a, 95.
Maple, the red and sugar, 6; the red, 258-263, 265; the sugar, 261, 271-278.
Marañon, the river, 93.
Marlborough (Mass.), 214.
Merrimack River, the, 147.
Michaux, André, quoted, 269.
Michaux, François André, quoted, 220, 261, 301.
Midnight, exploring the, 323.
Miller, a crabbed, 69.
Milne, Alexander, quoted, 193, 194.
Mississippi, discovery of the, 90; extent of the, 93; a panorama of the, 224.
Mission, verse, 418.
Montcalm, Wolfe and, monument to, 73, 74.
Montmorenci County, 62; the habitans of, 64-68.
Montmorenci, Falls of, 29, 37-39.
Montreal (Que.), 9, 11; described, 14-16; the mixed population of, 17, 18; from Quebec to, 96, 97; and its surroundings, beautiful view of, 98; the name of, 98.
Moon, The, verse, 406.
MOONLIGHT, NIGHT AND, 323-333.
Moonlight, reading by, 145.
Moore, Thomas, 98.
Morning, winter, early, 163-166.
Morton, Thomas, 2.
Mount Royal (Montreal), 11.
Mountains, the use of, 148, 149; and plain, influence of the, 150, 151.
Muse, The Venality of the, translation, 389.
Musketaquid, Prairie, or Concord River, 115.
Muskrat, the, 114-117.
Mussel, the, 129.
"My life more civil is and free," verse, 415.
Names, poetry in, 20; of places, French, 56, 57; men's, 236, 237; of colors, 273, 274.
NATURAL HISTORY OF MASSACHUSETTS, 103-131.
Natural history, reading books of, 103, 105.
Nature, health to be found in, 105; man's work the most natural, compared with that of, 119; the hand of, upon her children, 124, 125; different methods of work, 125; the civilized look of, 141; the winter purity of, 167; Nature, verse, 395.
Nawshawtuct Hill, 384.
New things to be seen near home, 211, 212.
Niebuhr, Barthold Georg, quoted, 290.
Niepce, Joseph Nicéphore, quoted, 238.
NIGHT AND MOONLIGHT, 323-333.
Night, on Wachusett, 146; the senses in the, 327, 328.
"No generous action can delay," verse, 418.
Nobscot Hill, 303, 304.
Norumbega, 90.
"Not unconcerned Wachusett rears his head," verse, 144.
Notre Dame (Montreal), 11; a visit to, 12-14.
Notre Dame des Anges, Seigniory of, 96.
Nurse-plants, 193.
Nuthatch, the, 108.
Nuttall, Thomas, quoted, 111, 112.
the scarlet, 278-281; leaves, scarlet, 278-280.
Ogilby, America of 1670, quoted, 91.
Old Marlborough Road, The, verse, 214.
Olympia at Evening, translation, 378.
Omnipresence, verse, 417.
"O Nature! I do not aspire," verse, 395.
"One more is gone," verse, 405.
Origin of Rhodes, translation, 376.
Orinoco, the river, 93.
Orleans, Isle of, 41, 42.
Orsinora, 90.
Ossian, quoted, 332.
Ottawa River, the, 41, 94, 98.
_Oui_, the repeated, 60.
Palladius, quoted, 294, 308.
Patent office, seeds sent by the, 203.
Peleus and Cadmus, translation, 381.
Penobscot Indians, use of muskrat-skins by, 116, 117.
Perch, the, 123.
Phœbe, the, 112.
Pies, no, in Quebec, 86.
Pilgrims, verse, 413.
_Pinbéna_, the, 48.
Pindar, Translations from, 375.
Pine cone, stripped by squirrels, 196.
Plain and mountain, life of the, 151.
Plants on Cape Diamond, Quebec, 27.
Plicipennes, 170.
Pliny, the Elder, quoted, 292.
Plover, the, 112.
Plum, beach, 201.
POEMS, 393-419.
Point Levi, by ferry to, 70; a night at, 71; 89.
Pointe aux Trembles, 20, 21.
Poke, or garget, the, 253-255.
_Pommettes_, 39.
"Poor bird! destined to lead thy life," verse, 411.
Potherie, quoted, 52.
Poverty, verse, 412.
Prairie River, Musketaquid or, 115.
Prayer, verse, 418.
Prometheus Bound of Æschylus, The, translation, 337.
Purana, the, quoted, 327.
Purple Grasses, The, 252-258.
Quail, a white, 109, note.
approach to, 22; harbor and population of, 22; mediævalism of, 23, 26; the citadel, 27-30, 76-80; fine view of, 49; reëntering, through St. John's Gate, 69; lights in the lower town, 71; landing again at, 72; walk round the Upper Town, 72-76; the walls and gates, 74, 75; artillery barracks, 75; mounted guns, 76; scenery of, 87-89; origin of word, 88; departure from, 95.
Rainbow in Falls of the Chaudière, 70, 71.