“Sunrise on Mansfield Mountain,” written in fine resonant pentameter, and building up stanza by stanza to the supreme climax of the dawn, is, as noted above, one of the finest achievements of Miss Brown’s volume, but one that will least bear the severing of its passages from their place in the growing whole. It is
full of notable phrases, as that in the apostrophe,—
O changeless guardians! O ye wizard firs!
· · · · ·
What breath may move ye, or what breeze invite
To odorous hot lendings of the heart?—
wherein the very pungency of the pine is infused into the words. But more adaptable to quotation in its compactness is the lyric entitled “Candlemas,” captivating in form and spontaneity, though no more felicitous in fancy or rhythm than many other of her nature poems:
O hearken, all ye little weeds
That lie beneath the snow,
(So low, dear hearts, in poverty so low!)