Chapter I: Front Matter

=The Rhyme and Reason=

OF

COUNTRY LIFE.

With Illustrations from Drawings by C. E. DOPLER. Engraved by J. W. ORR.

=New York:=

G. P. PUTNAM & CO.,

1855.

THE
=Rhyme and Reason=
OF
COUNTRY LIFE:
OR, SELECTIONS FROM
=Fields Old and New.=

BY

THE AUTHOR OF “RURAL HOURS,”

ETC., ETC.

——“The boundless store Of charms which Nature to her votary yields! The warbling woodland, the resounding shore, The pomp of groves and garniture of fields— All that the genial ray of Morning gilds, And all that echoes to the song of Even.” BEATTIE.

NEW YORK:

G. P. PUTNAM AND COMPANY,

10 PARK PLACE.

1854.

ENTERED, ACCORDING TO ACT OF CONGRESS, IN THE YEAR 1854, BY

G. P. PUTNAM & CO.,

IN THE CLERK’S OFFICE OF THE DISTRICT COURT OF THE UNITED STATES FOR THE
SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK.

NEW YORK STEREOTYPE ASSOCIATION,
201 William Street.

TO

WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT.

=A TRIBUTE=

OF

ADMIRATION FOR HIS GENIUS,

AND

=In Grateful Remembrance of a Generous Offering=

TO THE

MEMORY OF HIS FRIEND,

=These Selections=

ARE VERY RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED

BY

THE EDITOR.

=Preface.=

The selections contained in this volume are such as relate to one subject only—that of country life. But this, in itself, is a very wide sphere, and offers in its many different fields, old and new, all the variety that the most capricious spirit could desire. In collecting the different passages, the editor has allowed herself a wide sweep of the net; it has been her aim to bring together many beautiful passages from the best writers, mingled with others interesting rather from their quaintness and oddity, or their antiquity. With this view, not only have the poets of our own tongue, ancient and modern, English and American, been laid under contribution for the reader’s amusement, but translations from a dozen different languages have also been included in the volume. Materials for a work of this nature abound, and the editor

would have gladly drawn even more largely from the sources open to her, not only from the older authors, but from many writers of our own day also. It was desirable, however, that the volume should not reach an unwieldy size, as it was intended for pleasant companionship—the summer-seat, under a shady tree, or the chimney corner in winter—rather than for the prouder position allotted to the ponderous quarto on the library shelf. A word of especial apology is perhaps needed, regarding some of our omissions; “Comus,” the “Allegro and Penseroso,” Gray’s “Elegy” and “Ode to Spring,” with other poems of that class, though peculiarly fitted for a compilation of this kind, will not be found in our table of Contents. But they have already been so often printed and misprinted, quoted and misquoted!

“Dono infelice di bellezza, ond’ hai
Funesta dota d’ infiniti guai.”

In this instance their very absence will serve to recall them to the reader’s memory.

CONTENTS.