Be it ours to meditate
In these calm shades thy milder majesty,
And to the beautiful order of thy works
Learn to conform the order of our lives.
There is an excess of one syllable in the [sixth line]. If we
discard this syllable here, and adopt it in the final line, the
close will acquire strength, we think, in acquiring a fuller volume.
Be it ours to meditate
In these calm shades thy milder majesty,
And to the perfect order of thy works
Conform, if we can, the order of our lives.
Directness, boldness, and simplicity of expression, are main
features in the poem.
Oh God! when thou
Dost scare the world with tempests, set on fire
The heavens with falling thunderbolts, or fill
With all the waters of the firmament
The swift dark whirlwind that uproots the woods,
And drowns the villages.
Here an ordinary writer would have preferred the word fright to
scare, and omitted the definite article before woods and villages.
To the Evening Wind has been justly admired. It is the best specimen
of that completeness which we have before spoken of as a
characteristic feature in the poems of Mr. Bryant. It has a beginning,
middle, and end, each depending upon the other, and each beautiful.
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