Part 1

Chapter 11,834 wordsPublic domain

THE NATURE LOVER’S KNAPSACK

POCKET SIZE BOOKS OF VALUE

EMERSON’S ESSAYS.

_By_ RALPH WALDO EMERSON.

“First Series” and “Second Series” complete in one volume.

THE RING AND THE BOOK.

_By_ ROBERT BROWNING.

Walter Hampden Edition. With introduction by Montrose J. Moses, and notes by Charlotte Porter and Helen A Clarke.

OPERA SYNOPSES.

_By_ J. WALKER MCSPADDEN.

Fourth Edition. Revised and enlarged. Over one hundred and fifty operas.

NATURE LOVER’S KNAPSACK.

_By_ EDWIN OSGOOD GROVER.

A delightful collection of out-door poems by over one hundred different authors.

THOMAS Y. CROWELL COMPANY PUBLISHERS NEW YORK

THE NATURE LOVER’S KNAPSACK

AN ANTHOLOGY OF POEMS FOR LOVERS OF THE OPEN ROAD

_Edited by_ EDWIN OSGOOD GROVER _Professor of Books, Rollins College_

NEW YORK THOMAS Y. CROWELL COMPANY PUBLISHERS

Third Printing

MANUFACTURED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA BY THE VAIL-BALLOU PRESS, INC., BINGHAMTON, N. Y.

_To_

M. L. G.

_Who has shared with me the Joys of “Knapsack Carrying” along Life’s road_

_On Knapsack Carrying_

We are all knapsack carriers. And none of us travels far on the road of Life without discovering certain things which we would not be without,--things that seem indispensable to our happiness. These indispensable things we put, often unconsciously, into our knapsack to carry with us during the remainder of the journey.

The kinds of things we “tote” in our knapsack vary with the different stages of our journey. We begin by collecting pebbles for our sling shot, and in lieu of a literal knapsack we hide them in our boy’s pocket. A little farther along the journey we discover that marbles, or stamps, or arrowheads are the things that are indispensable to our happiness, and we gradually shift our knapsack load to meet the newer need.

Still later in life some of us accumulate coins and bank notes, stocks and mortgages, and other passing trifles that for the moment seem the only indispensable things to our happiness. We work ourselves sick, we sacrifice our friends, we succeed so well that soon our knapsack is too full for us to carry, and we go to some friendly banker and ask him to put it in his safety deposit vault where we may worry about it to our hearts’ content. And there it rests until we come to die, and the only joy it has brought us is the cheap joy of accumulation.

Some of us, however, by force of circumstance or by deliberate choice, begin early in life to collect in our knapsacks beautiful memories of sunsets, of cloud-capped hills and wind-swept plains, of deep-flowing rivers and talking brooks, memories of the infinite sky and the eternal sea, of bird songs and blossoms, of trembling trees and all the lovely things of nature. And after the first ecstasy of discovery, these things gradually become the indispensable things of our happiness and of our lives. Every spring these joys are reborn in us, and every autumn they flare up with the first reddening tree. Each month in the cycle of the year holds its unforgettable thrill, its reminder of ancient glories and happy memories.

Next to the recollection of beauties we have seen with our own eyes and carried long in the knapsack of our memory, there is no joy greater than walking afield with the poets, and spending an afternoon discovering new beauties and new meanings in Nature.

Soon or late every nature lover makes a collection of those poems that remind him of his own memories. These he treasures in his knapsack, and as the seasons come and go he takes them out to feed his soul and to refresh his spirit as he travels hopefully along the road of Life.

I would not for the world deprive any one of this pleasure. I only hope that this knapsack of nature poetry will be found a worthy travelling companion for every nature lover. It cannot be exhaustive, and it is in no sense a reference book. Its only purpose is to serve as a friendly guide to many of the most beautiful nature poems by English and American authors. They lead one over an unknown trail with here a glimpse of sea, there a racing cloud, now the patter of April rain, and the smell of apple blossoms. Open the book where you will, and it leads you off through field or forest, by babbling brook or singing sea.

An anthology necessarily implies an individual choice, and the selections within have been chosen almost without exception for the pleasure they have given me. Because I believe that Lyric poetry is the highest form of poetic expression, I have given the preference to poems that possess this singing quality.

In spite of the fact that in much of the poetry of the last twenty-five years the lyric note has been sadly absent, yet the book contains many exquisite lyrics by the “younger generation” which shows the persistence of this timeless quality of all great poetry.

I wish to acknowledge frankly my indebtedness to many who have preceded me in the making of anthologies; and to scores of authors and their publishers who have so generously given permission for me to include their poems. It is a goodly fellowship. If, after all, I have left out your favorite nature poem, please tell me so.

EDWIN OSGOOD GROVER

_What the Knapsack Holds_

_The Lure of the Road_

A Wanderer’s Song _John Masefield_ 3 The Singer’s Quest _Odell Shepherd_ 3 The Toil of the Trail _Hamlin Garland_ 4 Two Old Men _Louise Driscoll_ 5 The Best Road of All _Charles Hanson Towne_ 6 The Cry of the Dreamer _John Boyle O’Reilly_ 7 Highways _Leslie Nelson Jennings_ 8 Afoot and Light-Hearted _Walt Whitman_ 9 The Path that Leads to Nowhere _Corinne Roosevelt Robinson_ 9 City-Weary _Edgar A. Guest_ 10 The Faun _Richard Hovey_ 12 The Call of the Wild _Robert W. Service_ 13 A City Voice _Theodosia Garrison_ 15 Fishing _Edgar A. Guest_ 16 Camping Song _Bliss Carman_ 17 The Green Inn _Theodosia Garrison_ 18 Wanderlust _Isabel Ecclestine Mackay_ 19 Song _Georgiana Goddard King_ 19 In City Streets _Ada Smith_ 20 Up! Up! My Friend, and Quit Your Books _William Wordsworth_ 21 Road Song _James Stewart Montgomery_ 22 Walking at Night _Amory Hare_ 23 Road Song _W. G. Tinckom-Fernandez_ 24 A Song of the Open Road _Louis J. McQuilland_ 25 A Maine Trail _Gertrude H. McGiffert_ 27 The Spell of the Pool _L. Burton Crane, Jr._ 28 The Lake _Eleanour Norton_ 29 The Great Outdoors _Maud Russell_ 29 Come, Spur Away! _Thomas Randolph_ 30 Hunting Song _Richard Hovey_ 31 The Call _Cora D. Fenton_ 31 The King’s Highway _John Steven McGroarty_ 32 God Made This Day For Me _Edgar A. Guest_ 34 The Country Faith _Norman Gale_ 35

_Green Things Growing_

Afoot _Charles G. D. Roberts_ 39 Grace for Gardens _Louise Driscoll_ 40 My Garden _Thomas E. Brown_ 41 April _John Vance Cheney_ 41 A Song the Grass Sings _Charles G. Blanden_ 42 The Young Dandelion _Dinah Mulock Craik_ 42 Sunflowers _Clinton Scollard_ 43 Wishing _William Allingham_ 44 Rain _Lucy Larcom_ 44 To the Dandelion _James Russell Lowell_ 45 The Grass _Walt Whitman_ 47 Buttercups _Wilfrid C. Thorley_ 47 The Lilac _Humbert Wolfe_ 48 The Hollyhocks _Ray Laurance_ 48 The Ragged Regiment _Alice Williams Brotherton_ 49 Marigolds _Bliss Carman_ 49 In a Garden _Theda Kenyon_ 50 The Dandelions _Helen Gray Cone_ 51 Rhodora _Ralph Waldo Emerson_ 52 Daisies _Bliss Carman_ 53 Out in the Fields with God _Elizabeth Browning_ 53 The Blackbird _Humbert Wolfe_ 54 The Robin _Emily Dickinson_ 54 Clover _John B. Tabb_ 55 A Conversation _Sara Hamilton Birchall_ 55 A Yellow Pansy _Helen Gray Cone_ 56 The Answer _Sara Hamilton Birchall_ 57 A Prayer _Edwin Markham_ 57

_The Kinship of the Trees_

Tree Feelings _Charlotte Perkins Gilman_ 61 A B C’s in Green _Leonora Speyer_ 62 O Dreamy, Gloomy, Friendly Trees! _Herbert Trench_ 62 God, When You Thought of a Pine Tree _Unknown_ 63 The House of the Trees _Ethelwyn Wetherald_ 64 Trees _Bliss Carman_ 65 The Trees and the Master _Sidney Lanier_ 66 The Trees _Samuel Valentine Cole_ 67 Three Trees _Christopher Morley_ 68 What Do We Plant? _Henry Abbey_ 69 Trees _Henry van Dyke_ 70 The Trees _Lucy Larcom_ 71 Good Company _Karl Wilson Baker_ 71 The Green Tree in the Fall _Jessie B. Rittenhouse_ 72

_The Call of the Sea_

Sea-Fever _John Masefield_ 75 A Son of the Sea _Bliss Carman_ 75 Dreams of the Sea _William H. Davies_ 76 Going Down in Ships _Harry Kemp_ 77 The Waves of Breffny _Eva Gore-Booth_ 78 Short Beach _Richard Hovey_ 79 Sea Call _Margaret Widdemer_ 79 Ship-Love _Ethel E. Mannin_ 80 The Sea _Nora Hopper_ 81 Coquette _Keith Stuart_ 82 The Deep-Water Man _James Stuart Montgomery_ 82 Sea Longing _Harold Vinal_ 84 Had I the Choice _Walt Whitman_ 84 Gray _Oscar Williams_ 85 A Pagan Hymn _John Runcie_ 85 As the Tide Comes In _Cale Young Rice_ 86 A Wet Sheet and a Flowing Sea _Allan Cunningham_ 87 The Undersong _Fiona Macleod_ 88 Gray Rocks and Grayer Sea _Charles G. D. Roberts_ 89 The Sea _Bryan Waller Procter_ 89 The Sea Road _Martha Haskell Clark_ 91 The Sea _Richard Hovey_ 92 The World is Too Much With Us _William Wordsworth_ 94 Sunrise _Robert Browning_ 94 Song of the Sea _Richard Burton_ 95 Farewell _Katherine Tynan_ 96 The Return _Algernon Charles Swinburne_ 97 The Port o’ Heart’s Desire _John Steven McGroarty_ 99 Sea-Urge _Unknown_ 100 The Ocean _Lord Byron_ 100 A Song of Desire _Frederic Lawrence Knowles_ 102 A Sea Change _Dorothy Peace_ 103 Twilight At Sea _Amelia C. Welby_ 103 Sea-Song _Martha Haskell Clark_ 104 Deep Down _James Stuart Montgomery_ 104

_The Winds of Heaven_

Do You Fear the Wind? _Hamlin Garland_ 109 Hark to the Shouting Wind _Henry Timod_ 109 Who Has Seen the Wind? _Christina Rossetti_ 110 Wind _John Galsworthy_ 110 The Sea-Wind _Arthur Ketchum_ 111 I Meant to Do My Work Today _Richard Le Gallienne_ 111 That Wind is Best _Caroline Atherton Mason_ 112 Happy Wind _William H. Davies_ 112 Wind-Litany _Margaret Widdemer_ 113 A Morning _Theodosia Garrison_ 114 The Wind’s Life _Harry Kemp_ 115 The Mystic _Cale Young Rice_ 115

_The Hill-born_

The Cry of the Hillborn _Bliss Carman_ 119 Up a Hill and a Hill _Fannie Stearns Davis_ 120 Hills _Arthur Guiterman_ 121 Again Among the Hills _Richard Hovey_ 122 Hill Hunger _Joseph Auslander_ 124 Afternoon on a Hill _Edna St. Vincent Millay_ 125 The Hills _Theodosia Garrison_ 125 On a Hill _Irene Rutherford McLeod_ 126

_Traveller’s Joy_

Traveller’s Joy _Arthur Ketchum_ 131 Ellis Park _Helen Hoyt_ 132 Afoot _C. Fox-Smith_ 133 The Going of His Feet _Harry Kemp_ 134 Down East and Up Along _Edwin Osgood Grover_ 135 The Joys of the Road _Bliss Carman_ 136 Song of the Open _Sara Hamilton Birchall_ 139 Rebellion _Stephen Chalmers_ 140 The Tree-Top Road _May Riley Smith_ 142 Early Morning at Bargis _Hermann Hagedorn_ 143 Denial _Lancaster Pollard_ 144 “A la Belle Étoile” _Sara Hamilton Birchall_ 144 Journey _Edna St. Vincent Millay_ 145 The Sojourner _Sara Hamilton Birchall_ 146 Traveller’s Rest _C. Fox-Smith_ 147 Far From the Madding Crowd _Nixon Waterman_ 148 Streams _Clinton Scollard_ 149 The Call _Edgar A. Guest_ 150 The Road that Leads to Home _Ethel E. Mannin_ 150

_Echoes from Vagabondia_

Wanderthirst _Gerald Gould_ 155 The Vagabond _Edgar A. Guest_ 155 Gipsy Song _Sara Hamilton Birchall_ 156 The Road to Vagabondia _Dana Burnet_ 157 Gipsy Feet _Fannie Stearns Davis_ 158 A Strip of Blue _Lucy Larcom_ 160 Black Ashes _Martha Haskell Clark_ 161 The Wander Lure _Kendall Banning_ 162 Comrades of the Trail _Mary Carolyn Davies_ 163 The Vagrant _Pauline Slender_ 164 The Gipsy Wedding _Sara Hamilton Birchall_ 165 The Vagabond at Home _Ruth Wright Kauffman_ 165 The Gipsy Trail _Rudyard Kipling_ 166 St. Bartholomew’s on the Hill _Bliss Carman_ 168 Fishing _Edgar A. Guest_ 169 A Vagabond Song _Bliss Carman_ 171 Have You? _Harry M. Dean_ 171 Gypsy-Heart _Katherine Lee Bates_ 172 A More Ancient Mariner _Bliss Carman_ 173 Vagabonds _Sara Hamilton Birchall_ 175 The Gypsying _Theodosia Garrison_ 175 The Mendicants _Bliss Carman_ 176 The Beloved Vagabond _W. G. Tinckom-Fernandez_ 177 The Secret Voices _Ethel E. Mannin_ 178

_The Changing Year_

Turn O’ The Year _Katherine Tynan_ 183 April Music _Clinton Scollard_ 183 The Year’s Awakening _Thomas Hardy_ 184 Spring’s Answer _Edwin Osgood Grover_ 185 Morning Song _Lancaster Pollard_ 186 April Weather _Bliss Carman_ 186 The Runaway _Cale Young Rice_ 188 Spring Market _Louise Driscoll_ 189 Song in March _Clinton Scollard_ 190 Flower Chorus _Ralph Waldo Emerson_ 191 April’s Coming _Lancaster Pollard_ 192 The Secret _John Richard Moreland_ 193 Spring _Norman Gale_ 193 April Weather _Lizette Woodworth Reese_ 194 Renewal _Charles Hanson Towne_ 195 April _Theodosia Garrison_ 195 The Immortal _Cale Young Rice_ 196 Spring _Richard Hovey_ 196 Blind _Harry Kemp_ 199 Spring Song _Bliss Carman_ 200 The Sweet, Low Speech of the Rain _Ella Higginson_ 203 Early Spring _Alfred Tennyson_ 205 Spring _Henry Timrod_ 206 April, April _William Watson_ 208 April Rain _Robert Loveman_ 209 April _Emily Dickinson_ 210 April Morning _George Elliston_ 210 May-Lure _Richard Burton_ 211 Sunrise _Robert Browning_ 212 The Throstle _Alfred Tennyson_ 212 Tell All the World _Harry Kemp_ 213 Sorrow in a Garden _May Riley Smith_ 213 The Naturalist on a June Sunday _Leonora Speyer_ 215 Summer _Richard Burton_ 216 Autumn _Emily Dickinson_ 218 Overtones _William Alexander Percy_ 218 Carouse _Charles Hanson Towne_ 219 A Song in Autumn _Theodosia Garrison_ 219 An Autumn Garden _Bliss Carman_ 220 September _Sara Hamilton Birchall_ 223 Days Like These _Ella Elizabeth Egbert_ 224 Indian Summer _Emily Dickinson_ 225 The Deserted Pasture _Bliss Carman_ 226 The Coming of Dawn _Grace Atherton Dennen_ 227 Alms in Autumn _Rose Fyleman_ 228 November in England _Thomas Hood_ 228 The Hound _Babette Deutsch_ 229

_Sky-Born Music_