for he had that large compass which sees and seeks truths
in various excursions, and no field of history, or philology, or philosophy,
or science found him unsympathetic. The opportunity for these studies
opened a new era in his development, while we begin to find
a crystallization of that theory of formal verse which he adopted,
and a growing power to master it. To this artistic side of poetry he gave,
from this time, very special study, until he had formulated it
in his lectures in the Johns Hopkins University, and in his volume
"The Science of English Verse".

But from this time the struggle against his fatal disease
was conscious and constant. In May, 1874, he visited Florida
under an engagement to write a book for distribution by a railroad company.
Two months of the summer were spent with his family at Sunnyside, Ga.,
where "Corn" was written. This poem, published in `Lippincott's Magazine',
was much copied, and made him known to many admirers.
No one of these was of so much value to him as Bayard Taylor,
at whose suggestion he was chosen to write the cantata
for the opening of the Centennial Exposition at Philadelphia,
and with whom he carried on a correspondence so long as Mr. Taylor lived.
To Mr. Taylor he owed introductions of value to other writers,
and for his sympathy and aid his letters prove that he felt very grateful.
In his first letter to Mr. Taylor, written August 7, 1875, he says:

==
"I could never describe to you what a mere drought and famine
my life has been, as regards that multitude of matters which I fancy
one absorbs when one is in an atmosphere of art, or when one
is in conversational relation with men of letters, with travellers,
with persons who have either seen, or written, or done large things.