Born in Northampton, Mass., he graduated from Yale and was then made a tutor there. He became an army chaplain in 1777, but his father's death made his return home necessary. He became a preacher later and finally president of Yale. His hymn, "Love to the Church," is the one thing we most want to keep of all his several volumes. SAMUEL WOODWORTH (1785-1842) "Our best patriotic ballads and popular lyrics are, of course, based upon sentiment, aptly expressed by the poet and instinctively felt by the reader. Hence just is the fame and true is the love bestowed upon the choicest songs of our 'single-poem poets': upon Samuel Woodworth's 'Old Oaken Bucket,' etc." --CHARLES F. RICHARDSON. Born at Scituate, Mass., he had very little education. His father apprenticed him to a Boston printer while he was a young boy. He remained in the newspaper business all his life, and wrote numerous poems, and several operas which were produced. WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT (1794-1878) "A moralist, dealing chiefly with death and the more sombre phases of life, a lover and interpreter of nature, a champion of democracy and human freedom, in each of these capacities he was destined to do effective service for his countrymen, and this work was, as it were, cut out for him in his youth, when he was laboring in the fields, attending corn-huskings and cabin-raisings, or musing beside forest streams." --W. P. TRENT. Born in a mill-town village in western Massachusetts, he passed his boyhood on the farm. Unable to complete his college course, he practiced law until 1824, when he became editor of the New York Review. He continued all his life to be a man of letters. The poems by Bryant are used by permission of D. Appleton and Company, authorized publishers of his works. THANATOPSIS 34. patriarchs of the infant world: the leaders of the Hebrews before the days of history. 61. Barcan wilderness: waste of North Africa. 54. Why does Bryant suggest "the wings of the morning" to begin such a survey of the world? Would he choose the Oregon now? 28. ape: mimic. This poem is very simple in its form and is typical of Bryant's nature poems. First, is his observation of the waterfowl's flight and his question about it. Secondly, the answer is given. Thirdly, the application is made to human nature. Do you find such a comparison of nature and human nature in any other poems by Bryant? 9. plashy: swampy. 15. illimitable: boundless. GREEN RIVER Green River, flows near Great Barrington where Bryant practised law. 33. simpler: a collector of herbs for medicinal use.