the first indication of his fixation:

excessive picnicking. summer afternoons

wasted amidst the pines and palmettos, far

from the bustle of the city. profound admiration

for the countrified agrarian masses. Odes to

milking-pails and balls of cowslips soon ensued.

from dewy morn to the dream-filled eve

to the page he committed pastoral verse

for the country wit, cluttered with shepherdlings,

sheep-shearers and fairies, ever-frolicking

amidst rings of toadstools in rustic twilit raves.

his literary efforts evoked meadows, lately mown,

top-dressed with manure.