Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). An American Anthology, 1787–1900. 1900.

By Albert BigelowPaine

1433 In Louisiana

THE LONG, gray moss that softly swings

In solemn grandeur from the trees,

Like mournful funeral draperies,—

A brown-winged bird that never sings.

A shallow, stagnant, inland sea,

Where rank swamp grasses wave, and where

A deadliness lurks in the air,—

A sere leaf falling silently.

The death-like calm on every hand,

That one might deem it sin to break,

So pure, so perfect,—these things make

The mournful beauty of this land.