AUTHORS' FAVOURITE WORDS.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."] SIR, I have read with interest the letters in the Spectator on " Authors' Favourite Words." I have often thought it would be interesting to know an author's favourite verse or passage from his own works. To enrich my autograph collection, I wrote in the 'seventies of last century to five American poets, asking them to send me a verse from their poems, in their own handwriting. In the goodness of their hearts they all responded. The following are the gems I received :-
Longfellow sent a verse from "The Day is Done ":— " And the night shall be filled with music, And the cares that infest the day, Shall fold their tents, like the Arabs, And as silently steal away."
Whittier sent a passage from "Miriam ":— " Wherever through the ages rise The altars of self-sacrifice, Where love its arms has opened wide, Or man for man has calmly died, I see the same white wings outspread That hovered o'er the Master's head!
Up from undated time they come, The martyr souls of heathendom.
And to His cross and passion bring Their fellowship of suffering."
Bryant's contribution was:- " Truth, crushed to earth, shall rise again, The eternal years of God are hers, But Error, wounded, writhes in pain And dies amid his worshippers." Oliver Wendell Holmes sent the last verse from " The Chambered Nautilus " :- " Build thee more stately mansions, 0 my soul, As the swift seasons roll!
Leave thy low-vaulted past!
Let each new temple, nobler than the last, Shut thee from heaven with a dome more vast, Till thou at length art free, Leaving thine outgrown shell by life's unresting sea!"
James Russell Lowell wrote:— " Bird of to-day, your songs are stale To his, my singer of all weathers, My Calderon, my nightingale, My Arab soul in Spanish feathers."
am, Sir, &c.,
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