To understand the action of the causes which produce this phenomenon it is necessary to remember that at the time of the autumnal equinox the sun sets exactly in the west, and the southern half of the ecliptic, or the sun’s apparent annual path in the sky, will then be wholly above the horizon and the northern half entirely below; the ecliptic, therefore, making the least possible angle with the horizon.
In high northern latitudes, as in Alaska, British Columbia, Norway and Sweden and the north of Scotland, the moon’s path at such times is almost parallel with the horizon, and for more than a week she rises at very nearly the same time, giving the farmers ample light and time to garner their crops.
THE SOWER.
A POEM IN WHICH A DISTINGUISHED AMERICAN POET AND DIPLOMAT EXPRESSED HIS FEAR OF OLD WORLD INFLUENCES.
With the single exception of John Hay, no English-speaking poet has been so distinguished as a student of the social and political phases of national life as was James Russell Lowell (1819–1891). It is doubtful whether the United States ever produced a poet who was more truly national. His earlier verses were characterized by quaint Yankee humor, and many were virile pictures of New England life. In his later years, as a writer, editor, and lecturer, Lowell labored zealously to bring the literature and culture of the New World to a plane as high as that of the Old World. As a diplomat, he did more to cement the friendship of Great Britain and the United States than any man had done before. His official title, while in England, was that of United States Minister to Great Britain, but a London newspaper bestowed upon him another—“His Excellency the Ambassador of American Literature to the Court of Shakespeare.”
But though Lowell was cosmopolitan in many of his tastes, he was essentially a patriotic American. The great influx of foreigners and foreign ideals into the United States oftentimes excited his apprehension, and it was while under the influence of these fears that he wrote “The Sower,” which is printed herewith.
By JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL.
I saw a Sower walking slow
Across the earth, from east to west;