POETICAL WORKS
OF
WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT.
HOUSEHOLD EDITION.
NEW YORK:
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY,
1, 3, AND 5 BOND STREET.
LONDON: 16 LITTLE BRITAIN.
1880.
Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1854, by W. C.BRYANT, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United Statesfor the Southern District of New York.
Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1871, by W. C.BRYANT, in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.
Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1878, by D. APPLETON& CO., in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.
WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT.
The ancestry of William Cullen Bryant might have been inferred from thecharacter of his writings, which reflect whatever is best and noblest inthe life and thought of New England. It was a tradition that the firstBryant of whom there is any account in the annals of the New World cameover in the Mayflower, but the tradition is not authenticated. What isknown of this gentleman, Mr. Stephen Bryant, is that he came over fromEngland, and that he was at Plymouth, Massachusetts, as early as 1632.He married Abigail Shaw, who had emigrated with her father, and who borehim several children between 1650 and 1665, it is to be presumed atPlymouth, of which town he was chosen constable in 1663. Stephen Bryanthad a son named Ichabod, who was the father of Philip Bryant, who wasborn in 1732. Philip Bryant married Silence Howard, the daughter of Dr.Abiel Howard, of West Bridgewater, whose profession he adopted, being apractitioner in medicine in North Bridgewater. He was the father of ninechildren, one of whom, Peter Bryant, born in 1767, succeeded him in hisprofession. Young Dr. Bryant became enamored of Miss Sarah Snell, thedaughter of Mr. Ebenezer Snell, of Bridgewater, who removed his familyto Cummington, whither he was followed by his future son-in-law, whomarried the lady of his love in 1792. Two years later, on the 3d ofNovember, there was born to him a man-child, who was to win, and toleave,
"One of the few immortal names
That were not born to die."
Dr. Bryant was proud of his profession; and in the hope, no doubt, thathis son would become a shining light therein, he perpetuated at hischristening the name of a great medical authority, who had departed thislife four years before—William Cullen. Dr. Bryant was the last of hisfamily to practise the healing art; for Nature, wiser than he, earlydetermined the future course of Master William Cullen Bryant. He was notto be a doctor, but a poet. A poet, that is, if he lived to be anything;for the chances were against his living at all. The lad was exceedinglyfrail, and had a head the immensity of which troubled his anxiousfather. How to reduce it to the normal size was a puzzle which Dr.Bryant solved in a spring of clear, cold water, which burst out of theground on or near his homestead, and into which the child was immersedevery morning, head and all, by two of Dr. Bryant's students—kickinglustily, we may be sure, at this matutinal dose of hydropathy.
William Cullen Bryant came of Mayflower stock, his mother