The green rusticity of Whittier's farm and village life imparted a bucolic charm to such lyrics as " In School Days," " The Barefoot Boy," " Telling the Bees," " Maud Muller," and " My Schoolmate."
More than a modicum of rusticity is needed as a protection to a man who attempts such colossal reforms. This necessity had its consequences in the disquieting inequalities of Wagner's early work, and the undeniable egotism that embittered his fiery nature throughout his life; while the cut-and-dried system of culture of later Wagnerian discipleship has revenged him in a specially sacerdotal type of tradition, which makes progress even in the study of his works impossible except through revolt.
His work is full of humour and the clean, manly joy of life; and its rusticity is singularly allied to a literary sense and to high technical finish.
