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While Mr. Hawthorne’s analysis of the book was correct, his prophecy as to its attaining a national popularity was never realized. The literary critics, East as well as West, whose views and pretensions Field had so often lampooned mercilessly, had their innings, and as Field had not then conquered the popular heart with his “Little Boy Blue,” his matchless lullabies, and his fascinating fairy tales and other stories, “Culture’s Garland” was left to cumber the shelves of the book-stores. Several of the articles and poems in this book have been included in the collected edition of Field’s works. In it will be found Field’s famous “Markessy di Pullman” papers, with these clever introductory imitations:
"Il bianco di cazerni della graze fio
bella
Di teruca si mazzoni quel’ antisla
Somno della.”
—Petrarch.
“He who conduces to a fellow’s
sleep
Should noble fame and goodly riches reap.”
—Tasso.
“Sleep mocks at death: when
weary of the earth
We do not die—we take an upper
berth.”
—Dante._
There, too, are reprinted the verses he composed and credited to Judge Cooley, to which allusion has already been made in these pages, and of which Field wrote to his friend Cowen the week they were published: “I think they will create somewhat of a sensation; I have put a good deal of work upon them.” All the pieces of verse read by Field at the Indianapolis convention also appear in “Culture’s Garland,” three of them being included in the article on “Mr. Isaac Watts, Tutor,” of which “The Merciful Lad” was one of Field’s favorites:
