same year. On returning to New York he and George P. Morris established a daily newspaper, the Evening Mirror, but the death of Willis's wife and his own failing health led him to make another visit to Europe. Or his return, in 1846, he married again and located near Newburg, naming his residence Idlewild. In this same year he and George P. Morris established the Home Journal, a weekly paper, to which he was a contributor until the time of his death.

Of Willis's poems, The Death of Absalom, Hagar in the Wilderness, Jephthah's Daughter, The Daughter of Jairus, and The Belfry Pigeon are among the best. His Letters from Under a Bridge, People I have Met, Life Here and There, Famous Persons and Places, and A Health-Trip to the Tropics are the most highly esteemed of this versatile and graceful author's prose productions.

CRITICISM BY EVART A. DUYCKINCK.

THE Contributions of Mr. Willis to the various periodicals are severally characterized by their acute perception of affairs of life and the world; a delicate vein of sentiment, an increased ingenuity in the decoration and improvement of matters which in the hands of most writers would be impertinent and wearisome; in fine, in their invention, which makes new things out of old, whether among the palled commonplaces of the city or the scant monotony of the country. The poetry of Mr. Willis is musical and original. His sacred poems belong to a class of compositions which critics might object to, did not experience show them to be pleasurable and profitable interpreters to many minds. The versification of these poems is of remarkable smoothness. Indeed, they have gained the author reputation where his nicer powers would have failed to be appreciated.

THE BELFRY PIGEON.

ON the cross-beam under the Old South bell
The nest of a pigeon is builded well.

In summer and winter that bird is there,
Out and in with the morning air.
I love to see him track the street,
With his wary eye and active feet;
And I often watch him as he springs,
Circling the steeple with easy wings,

Till across the dial his shade has passed,
And the belfry edge is gained at last.

5

10

'Tis a bird I love, with its brooding note,

And the trembling throb in its mottled throat;

There's a human look in its swelling breast,

And the gentle curve of its lowly crest;

And I often stop with the fear I feel,
He runs so close to the rapid wheel.

Whatever is rung on that noisy bell—
Chime of the hour, or funeral knell-
The dove in the belfry must hear it well.

When the tongue swings out to the midnight moon,
When the sexton cheerily rings for noon,
When the clock strikes clear at morning light,
When the child is waked with "nine at night,"
When the chimes play soft in the Sabbath air,
Filling the spirit with tones of prayer,—
Whatever tale in the bell is heard,
He broods on his folded feet unstirred,
Or, rising half in his rounded nest,

He takes the time to smooth his breast,

ANALYSIS.-1. To what does Old South refer? 4. Dispose of out and in.

9. Why shade instead of shadow!

11, 12. Analyze these lines.

1-16. Name the figures.

17-19. Analyze the sentence.

17-31. What is the principal clause? clauses. What figures in these lines?

Name the modifying

Then drops again, with filmèd eyes,
And sleeps as the last vibration dies.
Sweet bird! I would that I could be
A hermit in the crowd like thee!
With wings to fly to wood and glen,
Thy lot, like mine, is cast with men;
And daily, with unwilling feet,
I tread, like thee, the crowded street;
But, unlike me, when day is o'er,

Thou canst dismiss the world and soar,
Or, at a half-felt wish for rest,
Canst smooth the feathers on thy breast,

And drop, forgetful, to thy nest.

I would that in such wings of gold

I could my weary heart upfold;

I would I could look down unmoved
(Unloving as I am unloved),

And while the world throngs on beneath,
Smooth down my cares and calmly breathe;
And, never sad with others' sadness,
And never glad with others' gladness,
Listen, unstirred, to knell or chime,
And, lapped in quiet, bide my time.

ANALYSIS.-30. Why film`d instead of filmed? 32, 33. Explain the lines.

32-42. Name the figures in these lines.

35. Dispose of like and mine.

38, 39. unlike me. What does the phrase modify?

42 What does forgetful modify?

43 Name the object of would.

43-52. Point out the figures in these lines.

45 What does unmoved modify?

46 Explain the line.

47. Parse the word beneath.

48. Give the mode of smooth.

49, 50. Dispose of sad and glad.

52. lapped in quiet. What does the phrase modify? Give the mode of bide.

19. BAYARD TAYLOR,

1825-1878.

BAYARD TAYLOR, a prominent American novelist, poet, and traveler, was born in the village of Kennett Square, Chester county, Pennsylvania, on the 11th of January, 1825. At the age of seventeen, having received a limited education, he became an apprentice in a printing-office in West Chester. While learning his trade he spent his leisure time in studying Latin and French and in writing verses. These latter he collected and published in 1844 under the title Ximena, with the hope of making a reputation for himself which would secure him employment as a contributor to some leading newspapers while he made a tour of Europe on foot. He was successful in his project, as the editors of The United States Gazette and The Saturday Evening Post advanced him one hundred dollars. In addition to this he received forty dollars for some verses which he contributed to Graham's Magazine, and with this amount he undertook the journey.

Taylor's first book, Views Afoot, which appeared in 1846, is, in the main, a description of his European journey. After his return to America he edited a paper for a year at Phoenixville, Pennsylvania, and then went tc New York, where he wrote for the Literary World, and in 1848 joined the editorial staff of the New York Tribune, soon thereafter becoming part owner of that journal. Taylor's literary labors were thereafter confined mainly to the Tribune, and many of his volumes on

travel first appeared as contributions to the columns of that paper.

In 1849 he visited California, and returned by way of Mexico, the literary result of his visit being the volume El Dorado; or, Adventures in the Path of Empire. In 1851 he set out on an extended tour of the East, and the same year he published a third volume of poems, his second being Rhymes of Travel, published in 1848. As the result of Taylor's second trip abroad, in which he traveled fifty thousand miles in less than two years and a half, we have A Journey to Central Africa, The Lands of the Saracen, A Visit to India, China, and Japan; Northern Travels; or, Summer and Winter Pictures of Sweden, Denmark, and Lapland; Travels in Greece and Russia, and At Home and Abroad.

In 1874, Taylor revisited Egypt, and also attended the millennial celebration of Iceland. He also published a volume this same year entitled Egypt and Iceland. Besides the books named, he has written Byways of Europe and a number of other works.

Among Taylor's principal poems are Poems of the Orient, Poems of Home and Travel, Picture of St. John, The Masque of the Gods; Lars, a Pastoral of Norway; Home Pastorals, and others. He wrote also several novels: Hannah Thurston, John Godfrey's Fortunes, The Story of Kennett, and Joseph and His Friend.

In addition to all this labor he translated a number of works from the German, the principal being Goethe's Faust, and also wrote several works of an historical character. Some of his books have been translated into German, French, and Russian.

Taylor married a German lady, and in February, 1878. he was appointed minister-plenipotentiary to Germany. He died at Berlin on the 19th of December of the same year.