"Morris is the best-known poet of the country, by acclamation, not
by criticism. He is just what poets would be if they sang, like
birds, without criticism; and it is a peculiarity of his fame, that
it seems as regardless of criticism, as a bird in the air. Nothing
can stop a song of his. It is very easy to say that they are
easy to do. They have a momentum, somehow, that it is difficult
for others to give, and that speeds them to the far goal of
popularity--the best proof consisting in the fact that he can, at
any moment, get fifty dollars for a song unread, when the whole
remainder of the American Parnassus could not sell one to the same
buyer for a shilling.

"It may, or may not, be one secret of his popularity, but it is the
truth--that Morris's heart is at the level of most other people's,
and his poetry flows out by that door. He stands breast-high in the
common stream of sympathy, and the fine oil of his poetic feeling
goes from him upon an element it is its nature to float upon, and
which carries it safe to other bosoms, with little need of deep
diving or high flying. His sentiments are simple, honest, truthful,
and familiar; his language is pure and eminently musical, and he
is prodigally full of the poetry of every-day feeling. These are
days when poets try experiments; and while others succeed by taking
the world's breath away with flights and plunges, Morris uses his
feet to walk quietly with nature. Ninety-nine people in a hundred,
taken as they come in the census, would find more to admire in
Morris's songs, than in the writings of any other American poet;
and that is a parish in the poetical episcopate, well worthy a wise
man's nurture and prizing.