When he was strongly moved he could rise and soar like that with ease. And not only in the prose form, but in the poetical as well. He had written many pieces of poetry in his time, and these manuscripts he lent around among the passen- gers, and was willing to let them be copied. It seemed to me that the least technical one in the series, and the one which reached the loftiest note, perhaps, was his
O Ornithorhyncus dear!
And greet with a cordial claw
The stranger that longs to hear
Of thy origin all unknown:
Thy misplaced bone where flesh should be
And flesh where should be bone;
And beaver-trowel tail,
And snout of beast equip'd with teeth
Where gills ought to prevail.
Foreshortened as to legs,
And body tapered like a churn,
And sack marsupial, i' fegs,
Thou relic of a vanished time,
When all your friends as fossils sleep,
Immortalized in lime!"
Perhaps no poet is a conscious plagiarist; but there seems to be warrant for suspecting that there is no poet who is not at one time or another an unconscious one. The above verses are indeed beautiful, and, in a way, touching; but there is a haunting something about them which unavoidably suggests the Sweet Singer of Michigan. It can hardly be doubted that the author had read the works of that poet and been impressed by them. It is not apparent that he has borrowed from them any word or yet any phrase, but the style and swing
