68. Lavish of their long-hid gold: The chestnut leaves, it will be
remembered, turn to a bright golden yellow in autumn. These
descriptions of autumn foliage are all as true as beautiful.
73. Maple-swamps: We generally speak of the swamp-maple, which grows
in low ground, and has particularly brilliant foliage in autumn.
82. Tangled blackberry: This is the creeping blackberry of course,
which every one remembers whose feet have been caught in its prickly
tangles.
91. Martyr oak: The oak is surrounded with the blazing foliage of
the ivy, like a burning martyr.
99. Dear marshes: The Charles River near Elmwood winds through broad
salt marshes, the characteristic features of which Lowell describes
with minute and loving fidelity.
127. Bobolink: If Lowell had a favorite bird, it was the bobolink,
although the oriole was a close competitor for his praises. In one of
his letters he says: "I think the bobolink the best singer in the
world, even undervaluing the lark and the nightingale in the
comparison." And in another he writes: "That liquid tinkle of theirs
is the true fountain of youth if one can only drink it with the right
ears, and I always date the New Year from the day of my first draught.
Messer Roberto di Lincoln, with his summer alb over his shoulders, is
the true chorister for the bridals of earth and sky. There is no bird
that seems to me so thoroughly happy as he, so void of all _arrière
pensée_ about getting a livelihood. The robin sings matins and vespers
somewhat conscientiously, it seems to me--makes a business of it and
pipes as it were by the yard--but Bob squanders song like a poet."