"Her characters are remarkable, considering their variety, for fidelity to nature, and her sentiments are marked by womanly delicacy, humanity, and reverence for religion; while over all is the charm of a powerful imagination, with frequent manifestations of the most quiet and delicious humor.”* "No American woman has evinced in prose or poetry anything like the genius of Alice Cary." MAY VERSES. FROM "LYRA, and Other Poems.” From their rushing wings apart? With young mosses they are flocking, Their light cradles in the trees! Within nature's bosom holden, "Till the wintry storms were done, With its stars the box is florid, While thousand blossoms tender, In the water softly dimpled- Is the providence of God! +Westminster Review From the insect's little story In the ocean of his love. RESPITE. FROM "LYRA, AND OTHER POEMS." LEAVE me, dear ones, to my slumber, I am weary, oh, how weary! We have journeyed up together, Through the pleasant day-time flown; Now my feet have pressed life's summit, And my pathway lies alone. And, my dear ones, do not call me, For, while yet the stars are lying Therefore, dear ones, let me slumber- And with morning's early splendor, THE POET TO THE PAINTER. PAINTER, paint me a sycamore, A spreading and snowy-limbed tree, With a winding and dusty road before, "Twill take your finest skill to draw The little girl in the hat of straw Is as fair as fair can be. You have painted frock and hat complete! From sunflower-fringes her shining head. Now, painter, paint the hop-vine swing Close to the group of three, And a bird with bright brown eyes and wing, "Twit twit, twit twit, twee!" That is all the song he makes, And the child to mocking laughter breaks, Father and mother and me!" Pretty darling, her world is small,— Ah, painter, your hand is still! You have made the group of three But you cannot make all the skill Of your colors say, "Twit twit, twee!" COOPER. JAMES FENIMORE COOPER was born at Burlington, New Jersey, September 15, 1789. At an early age he removed with his father to the neighborhood of Otsego Lake, New York, where he passed his boyhood, "surrounded by noble scenery, and a population composed of adventurous settlers, hardy trappers, and the remnant of the noble Indian tribes who were once sole lords of the domain.” * At thirteen, young Cooper entered Yale College, where he proved himself an excellent classical student: but leaving after a term of three years, he entered the navy as midshipman, and remained six years in the service. He then married, and settled down to a domestic and village life near the city of New York. Cooper's literary career was begun by accident, as it would seem. One evening, laying aside an English novel which he had been reading to his wife, he remarked, half playfully, that he believed he could write a better one himself. Precaution was the result of this sudden conviction; but, if we may judge of its worth both by its author's and the public's estimation of it, it is not altogether certain that Cooper realized the conceit which gave birth to the effort. Cooper published, in 1821, what is conceded to have been the first successful American novel, entitled, The Spy, a Tale of the Neutral Ground. "The rugged, homely worth of Harvey Birch (the Spy), his native shrewdness combined with heroic boldness, which develops itself in deeds, not in the heroic speeches which an ordinary novelist would have placed in his mouth, the dignified presentation of Washington in the slight disguise of the assumed name of Harper, the spirit of the battle scenes and hairbreadth escapes which abound in the * Duyckinck's Cyclopædia of American Literature. |