Page:Thoreau - His Home, Friends and Books (1902).djvu/109

Rh Doubtless the supposition arose from the sentiment of the ninth stanza,—

While his romance may have suggested this thought, the explanation of the subject of the poem seems strained and unlikely. Thoreau hated subterfuge in any form and his love-poems were concealed at this time, not printed, in full accord with his temperament. His family, on the contrary, have explained that "the gentle boy" was the brother of Ellen, a lad of eleven years, with refined, noble character, later a resident pupil at the Thoreau school. Henry was deeply interested in the boy but failed to win the cordial friendship given to the less reserved, and more sunny, John. The poem was written after the boy had visited the Thoreau family. His brother George was somewhat envious of the honor paid to his elder companion, so he begged Thoreau to write and dedicate a poem to him. The light, doggerel verses in answer have not appeared in print, save in an English magazine;—the bluebirds that give motive to the stanzas had become identified with the Thoreau home and are referred to in many letters. In any criticism upon