he
'Inscription for the Entrance to a Wood.'

[Illustration: WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT.]

The year of its publication also brought into the world Cooper's 'The
Spy,' Irving's 'Sketch Book' and 'Bracebridge Hall,' with various other
significant volumes, including Channing's early essays and Daniel
Webster's great Plymouth Oration. It was evident that a native
literature was dawning brightly; and as Bryant's productions now came
into demand, and he had never liked the profession of law, he quitted it
and went to New York in 1825, there to seek a living by his pen as "a
literary adventurer." The adventure led to ultimate triumph, but not
until after a long term of dark prospects and hard struggles.

Even in his latest years Bryant used to declare that his favorite among
his poems--although it is one of the least known--was 'Green River';
perhaps because it recalled the scenes of young manhood, when he was
about entering the law, and contrasted the peacefulness of that stream
with the life in which he would be

"Forced to drudge for the dregs of men,
And scrawl strange words with the barbarous pen,
And mingle among the jostling crowd,
Where the sons of strife are subtle and loud."

This might be applied to much of his experience in New York, where he
edited the New York Review and became one of the editors, then a
proprietor, and finally chief editor of the Evening Post. A great part
of his energies now for many years was given to his journalistic
function, and to the active outspoken discussion of important political
questions; often in trying crises and at the cost of harsh unpopularity.
Success, financial as well as moral, came to him within the next
quarter-century, during which laborious interval he had likewise
maintained his interest and work in pure literature and produced new
poems from time to time in various editions.

From this point on until his death, June 12th, 1878, in his
eighty-fourth year, he was the central and commanding figure in the
enlarging literary world of New York. His newspaper had gained a potent
reputation, and it brought to bear upon public affairs a strong
influence of the highest sort. Its editorial course and tone, as well as
the earnest and patriotic part taken by Bryant in popular questions and
national affairs, without political ambition or office-holding, had
established him as one of the most distinguished citizens of the
metropolis, no less than its most renow