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 mental reaction that the poem was the precipitant.

Curiously enough, Mr. Butler himself believed that he was inspired to write, not this portion of the poem, but the very portion which has least inspiration in it. Here is what he says:

But it was not the mind of the poet, it was the mind of the lawyer which devised the closing lines, and the lawyer is also betrayed in other places by a stilted phrase or a legal reference. Mr. Butler continues: Having finished the poem, and after reading it to my wife, I took it to my friend, Evert A. Duyckinck, whom I found in his accustomed place in the basement of his house, No. 20 Clinton Place, surrounded by the books which afterwards, under his will, went to the Lenox Library. I read him the poem, to which he listened with lively interest; but, much to my disappointment, he did not appreciate as keenly as I had hoped what I believed and