To The Nightingale-Bamford School:
This is one of my favorite poems because it confirms the importance of spending time with nature to give beauty and balance to your life. There is nothing more refreshing to the spirit than a walk in the country — whether in the woods or across fields or even along red-rock canyons of the Southwest.
Sincerely,
FROM “INSCRIPTION FOR THE ENTRANCE TO A WOOD”
Stranger, if thou hast learned a truth which needs
No school of long experience, that the world
Is full of guilt and misery, and hast seen
Enough of all its sorrows, crimes, and cares,
To tire thee of it, enter the wild wood
And view the haunts of Nature. The calm shade
Shall bring a kindred calm, and the sweet breeze
That makes the green leaves dance, shall waft a balm
To thy sick heart.
— William Cullen Bryant