a
"village," but the familiar scenes already had their retrospective
charms, which increased with the passing years. Later in life he again
celebrated his affection for this home environment in _Under the
Willows._

"There are poetic lines and phrases in the poem," says Scudder, "and
more than all the veil of the season hangs tremulously over the whole,
so that one is gently stirred by the poetic feeling of the rambling
verses; yet, after all, the most enduring impression is of the young
man himself in that still hour of his life, when he was conscious, not
so much of a reform to which he must put his hand, as of the love of
beauty, and of the vague melancholy which mingles with beauty in the
soul of a susceptible poet. The river winding through the marshes, the
distant sound of the ploughman, the near chatter of the chipmunk, the
individual trees, each living its own life, the march of the seasons
flinging lights and shadows over the broad scene, the pictures of
human life associated with his own experience, the hurried, survey of
his village years--all these pictures float before his vision; and
then, with an abruptness which is like the choking of the singer's
voice with tears, there wells up the thought of the little life which
held as in one precious drop the love and faith of his heart."

1. Visionary tints: The term Indian summer is given to almost any
autumnal period of exceptionally quiet, dry and hazy weather. In
America these characteristic features of late fall were especially
associated with the middle West, at a time when the Indians occupied
that region.

5. Hebe: Hebe was cup-bearer to the gods at their feasts on Olympus.
Like Hebe, Autumn fills the sloping fields, rimmed round with distant
hills, with her own delicious atmosphere of dreamy and poetic
influence.

11. My own projected spirit: It seems to the poet that his own
spirit goes out to the world, steeping it in reverie like his own,
rather than receiving the influence from nature's mood.

25. Gleaning Ruth: For the story of Ruth's gleaning in the fields of
Boaz, see the book of _Ruth_, ii.

38. Chipmunk: Lowell at first had "squirrel" here, which would be
inconsistent with the "underground fastness." And yet, are chipmunks
seen up in walnut trees?

40. This line originally read, "with a chipping bound." _Cheeping_ is
chirping, or giving the peculiar cluck that sounds like "cheep," or
"chip."

45. Faint as smoke, etc.: The farmer burns