THE WRITINGS OF JOHN BURROUGHS
WITH PORTRAITS AND MANY ILLUSTRATIONS


VOLUME III

BIRDS AND POETS
WITH OTHER PAPERS




PREFACE

I have deliberated a long time about coupling some of my sketches
of outdoor nature with a few chapters of a more purely literary
character, and thus confiding to my reader what absorbs and
delights me inside my four walls, as well as what pleases and
engages me outside those walls; especially since I have aimed to
bring my outdoor spirit and method within, and still to look upon
my subject with the best naturalist's eye I could command.

I hope, therefore, he will not be scared away when I boldly
confront him in the latter portions of my book with this name of
strange portent, Walt Whitman, for I assure him that in this
misjudged man he may press the strongest poetic pulse that has yet
beaten in America, or perhaps in modern times.
Then, these chapters are a proper supplement or continuation of my
themes and their analogy in literature, because in them we shall
"follow out these lessons of the earth and air," and behold their