Over the shoulders and slopes of the dune
I saw the white daisies go down to the sea,
A host in the sunshine, an army in June,
The people God sends us to set our hearts free.
The bobolinks rallied them up from the dell,
The orioles whistled them out of the wood;
And all of their singing was, “Earth, it is well!”
And all of their dancing was, “Life, thou art good!”
_Richard Burton_
Richard (Eugene) Burton was born at Hartford, Connecticut, March 14,
1861. He has taught English at various colleges and universities
since 1888, and has been head of the English department of the
University of Minnesota since 1906. His first book, _Dumb in June_
(1895), is, in many ways, his best. It contains a buoyant lyricism,
a more conscious use of the strain developed in Carman and Hovey’s
_Songs from Vagabondia_—a mood which he has never surpassed. Much of
his other verse is far less distinctive, being what might be called
“anonymous poetry”: a poetry that has, in spite of certain excellent
qualities, little trace of the individual and practically no stamp
of personality or place. The succeeding _Lyrics of Brotherhood_
(1899) has a wider vision if a more limited music; several of the
poems in this collection reflect the hungers, dreams and unsung
melodies of the dumb and defeated multitudes. _From the Book of
Life_ (1909) has scarcely as much power and less poetry.
Besides his verse, Burton has written several books of essays, a
life of Whittier and various volumes on the drama.