gained his mother's leave to withdraw, he was discharged from the military service
after having been "absent sick" from two mid-year examinations. USMA records; Peter
to Sarah Bryant, October 29, 1824, BCHS.
107. To Theophilus Parsons
Great Barrington Aug. 20 1824
My dear Sir
Just as I had copied the enclosed, I received yours of the 16th.
1 I send
it on with all possible expedition.--
2
Yrs. truly
W. C. BRYANT
MANUSCRIPT: BPL ADDRESS:
Theophilus Parsons Esq / Taunton / Mass POSTMARK (in
script): Great Barrington August 21st-- / POSTAL ANNOTATION: 25.
2.Bryant apparently sent with this letter the poem "Monument Mountain," USLG, I ( September 15, 1824), 173-174. See Poems ( 1876), pp. 89-93. Manuscript in
HEHL.
108. To Theophilus Parsons
Great Barrington Oct. 16, 1824.
Dear Sir
I send you three little poems.
1 What is a very unusual occurrence
with me, my professional business for a few weeks past has left me little
leisure to write poetry:
2--In the winter I expect to have nothing else to
do.--
Yrs. truly--
W. C. BRYANT.
MANUSCRIPT: HEHL ADDRESS: Theophilus Parsons Esq. / Taunton / Massachusetts.--
POSTMARK (in script): Sheffield / Oct 23 POSTAL ANNOTATION: Way 18½.
1.These were a sonnet later entitled "Mutation," USLG, 1 ( November 15, 1824), 237; another sonnet, later called "November,"ibid.; and "Song of the Grecian Amazon,"ibid. (December 1), 253. See Poems ( 1876), pp. 98-101. Manuscript in HEHL.
2.At the October 1824 court term at Lenox Bryant entered at least twenty-four
writs for court action, as compared with six during his first term before the Court of
Common Pleas seven years earlier. "Youth," pp. 191-192; MS "Docket of Cases, 1823
to 1825," NYPL-Miscellaneous Bryant Papers. In addition, the Bloss vs. Tobey case, to
which he had given much time during the past year, was finally decided against his
client in the Supreme Judicial Court during its September-October term. See 92.2.
109. To Henry D. Sedgwick
Great Barrington Oct. 18. 1824.
My Dear Sir.
If I thought the conductor of the N. A. guilty of a wilful neglect of
the work you mention, it would be a sin of omission for which I should
feel little disposition to offer any apology.
1 But that department of the
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