SOURCE: "Birds of Passage," in Cornhill Magazine, Vol. XXXII, No. 189, September, 1875, pp. 346-53.

In the following excerpt from an essay on several Swedish poets, Gosse praises Stagnelius' work for its spontaneity and philosophical depth.

In presenting the reader with some specimens of Swedish poetry, and of the works of three great poets of the language, we have selected the subject of Birds of Passage; not because the lyrics here given exhibit these poets at their best, but because the idea is a typical one, and has been treated characteristically by each. The advent of the birds of passage is the most anxiously awaited event in the life of the North. Through the summer they bring song and love to whilom dreary silence of the woods; in autumn their flight forbodes the departure of a thousand delights and the speedy approach of a stark and cheerless torpor in nature...