I
In the garden room, worthy synonym of a poet’s study where blossom
flowers of thought and beauty, a young neighbor of the poet awaited his
coming.
His easy chair stood with bookshelves on the right hand, whence he
could gather from them as he pleased--although books were scattered
everywhere over the house--and at its left was the table between the
windows looking into the garden, while opposite it stood the door from
the little hall, so that the chair faced all who entered the room. She
looked across the room at a painting of a California sunset--Starr
King’s gift to the poet. Near the painting was the engraving of an
Arctic scene sent to the poet and his sister Elizabeth by Dr. Kane on
his return from his Arctic explorations. She remembered how for a long
time the picture had failed to appear, and how when a duplicate had
been sent and hung, this first picture had at last arrived, and had
been given by Miss Whittier to one of her Amesbury friends.
The poet had banished from the garden room a fine oil painting of
himself in his youth, a striking portrait, full of individuality, yet
bearing a suggestion of Burns. But it was not strange that one poet
should recall the other, since there was in some respects a marked
resemblance in the moods and ideals of the two; while in character and
life they were as far asunder as the poles.
* * * * *
When Whittier’s poem on “Burns,” written “On Receiving a Sprig of
Heather in Blossom,” was published, his sister Elizabeth wrote to the
doctor’s wife, “This song of Burns was written partly before, but thy
gift of heather bells has given it all its beauty. Nobody knows how
much I love the old romance of Scotland, and the name of _heather_
or _moorland_ always has a charm.” Later, the poet himself told the
giver--a Scotswoman--of his early falling in with the poems of Burns,
and how the Scottish poet had opened his eyes to the beauty of the
simplicities of life and our rich possession in these, and how, taught
by Burns, Whittier had
“Matched with Scotland’s heathery hills
The sweetbrier and the clover.”