the savage's romance, accreted where we need the space for commerce— the centre of the wholesale fur trade, starred with tepees of ermine and peopled with foxes, the long guard-hairs waving two inches beyond the body of the pelt; the ground dotted with deer-skins—white with white spots "as satin needlework in a single color may carry a varied pattern," and wilting eagles' down compacted by the wind; and picardels of beaver skin; white ones alert with snow. It is a far cry from the "queen full of jewels" and the beau with the muff, from the gilt coach shaped like a perfume bottle, to the conjunction of the Monongahela and the Allegheny, and the scholastic philosophy of the wilderness to combat which one must stand outside and laugh since to go in is to be lost. It is not the dime-novel exterior, Niagara Falls, the calico horses and the war canoe; it is not that "if the fur is not finer than such as one sees others wear, one would rather be without it—" that estimated in raw meat and berries, we could feed the universe; it is not the atmosphere of ingenuity, the otter, the beaver, the puma skins without shooting-irons or dogs; it is not the plunder, it is the "accessibility to experience." | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE JOY OF WRITING by WISLAWA SZYMBORSKA THE FALCONER OF GOD by WILLIAM ROSE BENET TO WORDSWORTH by FELICIA DOROTHEA HEMANS THE FIRE OF DRIFTWOOD; DEVEREUX FARM, NEAR MARBLEHEAD by HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW SONNETS OF MANHOOD: 35. BALACLAVA by GEORGE BARLOW (1847-1913) |