But if, around my place of sleep, The friends I love should come to weep, Soft airs, and song, and light, and bloom These to their softened hearts should bear Whose part, in all the pomp that fills Is that his grave is green; And deeply would their hearts rejoice CHAPTER VI. 1825-1830: LITERARY ASSOCIATES AND SOCIETY IN NEW YORKMAGAZINE EDITING-TAKES TO JOURNALISM. Settles in New York-Edits a Monthly Magazine-His Literary AssociatesDana The Death of the Flowers - Sedgwick's Home- The Sketch Club-Lectures at the National Academy of Design-Magazine Ventures Unsuccessful-Takes to Journalism-Assistant Editor of Evening PostHis Literary Status Recognized - The Talisman — On Coleman's Death he becomes Editor of the Evening Post-Engages Leggett as Assistant. Bryant, in 1825, removed to New York, which city continued to be his head-quarters for more than half a century. "Here he lived," says General James Grant Wilson, "from earliest youth to venerable age-from thirty-one to eightyfour in one path of honour and success.” He at once entered on his duties as the co-editor of a monthly publication, The New York Review and Athenæum Male coadjutor being Henry J. Anderson, aftermathematics in Columbia College. ven got for him by Sedgwick, with the aid of Verplanck, and in the new literary enterprise the editors were well supported by the literary contributions of Willis, Dana, Bancroft, and Halleck. The very first number contained several notable poems, such as the well-known "Marco Bozzaris" of Halleck, signed simply with the letter H., of which the editor said: "It would be an act of gross injustice to the author of the above magnificent lyric were we to withhold the expression of our admiration of its extraordinary beauty. We are sure, too, that in this instance, at least, we have done what is rare in the annals of criticism-we have given an opinion from which no one of our readers will feel any inclination to dissent." And, Bryant's own "Song of Pitcairn's Island;" which a contemporary journalist styled "one of the sweetest pictures that a highly cultivated fancy ever drew." It also (1825) contained Dana's earliest poem, “The Dying Raven," written at the age of thirty-eight, and signed with an anonymous "Y." Thus, in regard to Bryant, although Dana was the older man (born 1787— died 1879), he was the younger poet. Among other poems and numerous prose articles on art and kindred subjects, Bryant contributed to the pages of the New York Review that pensive autumn dirge, "The Death of the Flowers," which is familiar to all readers of good poetry. In it he has embalmed the memory of his sister, in a poem as felicitous in conception as it is exquisitely sweet and musical in expression. THE DEATH OF THE FLOWERS. The melancholy days are come, the saddest of the year, sere. d in the hollows of the grove, the autumn leaves lie dead; But if, around my place of sleep, The friends I love should come to weep, Soft airs, and song, and light, and bloom These to their softened hearts should bear Whose part, in all the pomp that fills Is that his grave is green; And deeply would their hearts rejoice CHAPTER VI. 1825-1830: LITERARY ASSOCIATES AND SOCIETY IN NEW YORKMAGAZINE EDITING-TAKES TO JOURNALISM. Settles in New York-Edits a Monthly Magazine-His Literary AssociatesDana The Death of the Flowers - Sedgwick's Home The Sketch Club-Lectures at the National Academy of Design-Magazine Ventures Unsuccessful-Takes to Journalism-Assistant Editor of Evening PostHis Literary Status Recognized - The Talisman On Coleman's Death he becomes Editor of the Evening Post-Engages Leggett as Assistant. Bryant, in 1825, removed to New York, which city continued to be his head-quarters for more than half a century. "Here he lived," says General James Grant Wilson, "from earliest youth to venerable age-from thirty-one to eightyfour-in one path of honour and success." He at once entered on his duties as the co-editor of a monthly publication, The New York Review and Athenæum Magazine, his coadjutor being Henry J. Anderson, afterwards professor of mathematics in Columbia College. This opening had been got for him by Sedgwick, with the aid of Verplanck, and in the new literary enterprise the editors were well supported by the literary contributions of Willis, Dana, Bancroft, and Halleck. The very first number contained several notable poems, such as the well-known "Marco Bozzaris" of Halleck, signed simply with the letter H., of which the editor said: "It would be an act of gross injustice to the author of the above magnificent lyric were we to withhold the expression of our admiration of its extraordinary beauty. We are sure, too, that in this instance, at least, we have done what is rare in the annals of criticism—we have given an opinion from which no one of our readers will feel any inclination to dissent." And, Bryant's own "Song of Pitcairn's Island;" which a contemporary journalist styled one of the sweetest pictures that a highly cultivated fancy ever drew." 66 It also (1825) contained Dana's earliest poem, "The Dying Raven," written at the age of thirty-eight, and signed with an anonymous "Y." Thus, in regard to Bryant, although Dana was the older man (born 1787— died 1879), he was the younger poet. Among other poems and numerous prose articles on art and kindred subjects, Bryant contributed to the pages of the New York Review that pensive autumn dirge, "The Death of the Flowers," which is familiar to all readers of good poetry. In it he has embalmed the memory of his sister, in a poem as felicitous in conception as it is exquisitely sweet and musical in expression. THE DEATH OF THE FLOWERS. The melancholy days are come, the saddest of the year, sere. Heap'd in the hollows of the grove, the autumn leaves lie dead; They rustle to the eddying gust, and to the rabbit's tread; The robin and the wren are flown, and from the shrubs the jay, And from the wood-top calls the crow through all the gloomy day. Where are the flowers, the fair young flowers, that lately sprang and stood In brighter light and softer airs, a beauteous sisterhood? The wind-flower and the violet, they perished long ago, on men, And the brightness of their smile was gone, from upland, glade, and glen. And now, when comes the calm mild day, as still such days will come, To call the squirrel and the bee from out their winter home; When the sound of dropping nuts is heard, though all the trees are still, And twinkle in the smoky light the waters of the rill, The south wind searches for the flowers whose fragrance late he bore, And sighs to find them in the wood and by the stream no more. And then I think of one who in her youthful beauty died, The late Bayard Taylor, in alluding to this early |