THE CONJUNCTION OF JUPITER AND VENUS.

This conjunction was said in the common calendars to have taken place on the 2d of August, 1826.  This, I believe, was an error, but the apparent approach of the planets was sufficiently near for poetical purposes.

THE HURRICANE.

This poem is nearly a translation from one by Jose Maria de Heredia, a native of the Island of Cuba, who published at New York, six or seven years since, a volume of poems in the Spanish language.

SONNET—­WILLIAM TELL.

Neither this, nor any of the other sonnets in the collection, with the exception of the one from the Portuguese, is framed according to the legitimate Italian model, which, in the author’s opinion, possesses no peculiar beauty for an ear accustomed only to the metrical forms of our own language.  The sonnets in this collection are rather poems in fourteen lines than sonnets.

THE HUNTER’S SERENADE.

  The slim papaya ripens, &c.

Papaya—­papaw, custard-apple.  Flint, in his excellent work on the Geography and History of the Western States, thus describes this tree and its fruit:—­

“A papaw shrub, hanging full of fruits, of a size and weight so disproportioned to the stem, and from under long and rich-looking leaves, of the same yellow with the ripened fruit, and of an African luxuriance of growth, is to us one of the richest spectacles that we have ever contemplated in the array of the woods.  The fruit contains from two to six seeds, like those of the tamarind, except that they are double the size.  The pulp of the fruit resembles egg-custard in consistence and appearance.  It has the same creamy feeling in the mouth, and unites the taste of eggs, cream, sugar, and spice.  It is a natural custard, too luscious for the relish of most people.”

Chateaubriand, in his Travels, speaks disparagingly of the fruit of the papaw; but on the authority of Mr. Flint, who must know more of the matter, I have ventured to make my western lover enumerate it among the delicacies of the wilderness.

THE PRAIRIES.

  The surface rolls and fluctuates to the eye.

The prairies of the West, with an undulating surface, rolling prairies, as they are called, present to the unaccustomed eye a singular spectacle when the shadows of the clouds are passing rapidly over them.  The face of the ground seems to fluctuate and toss like the billows of the sea.

  The prairie-hawk that, poised on high,
  Flaps his broad wings, yet moves not.

I have seen the prairie-hawk balancing himself in the air for hours together, apparently over the same spot; probably watching his prey.