This treasury of verse rejoices in the pleasures of the countryside and natural beauty. Selections range from pastoral songs by Shakespeare to Wordsworth's odes to a skylark, the cuckoo, and a butterfly. Dozens of enchanting poems include Blake's "Piping Down the Valleys Wild," Marvell's "The Garden," Campbell's "To the Evening Star," and verse by Milton, Tennyson, Keats, and many others. AUTHOR: Poet and literary critic Richard Henry Stoddard (1825?1903) reviewed literature for the New York World and was an editor for Vanity Fair, The Aldine, and other periodicals. He worked as an inspector of customs at the Port of New York as well as George B. McClellan's confidential clerk and as city librarian of New York. His poem "Roses and Thorns" was set to music by Tchaikovsky.
