Percival Lowell
silent witness to his originality, as his discoveries in this field were various and his nomenclature unique. From the trees on the heights he characteristically jumped to the flora on the table-land below as he himself beautifully expresses on the opposite page. He found a new Ash-tree in a canon in Arizona which will bear his name.[1]
In all parts of the world, nature touched him alike from the Peaks of Arizona to the Woods of Fontainebleau and the plum-trees of Korea.
In prose writing he excelled. In poetry he at times was touched with the Divine fire. The following is a sparkling gem of that which even great poets might be proud to say "this is mine own." It is poetry of a high order. It follows the established rules of rhythm and rhyme and attains its object in the loveliest and simplest measures. It will serve to show one of the varied moods that went to make up the mentality and spiritual essence of Dr. Lowell.
"In Fontainebleau, whence now the light of day
Is shut by oaks, vast glaciers once held sway,
In undisputed ice their lateral moraines
With grasping fingers stretched to clutch the plains.
Gone all are now, their very memory sleeps
Save for the vigil one poor mourner keeps,
The falling teardrop of the 'rock that weeps.'"
- ↑ See "Rhodora"; February, 1917. Page 23.
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