Forest Runes: Poems on Living and Hunting in the Mighty Natural Wilderness of North America - George Washington Sears

n nGeorge Washington Sears tributes the great outdoors with a collection of poems chronicling life among nature in all its rugged glory.n nA committed outdoorsman, Sears was most at home among the trees and hills of America's wilderness. Each poem in this anthology chronicles a different aspect of life spent camping and living in the depths of nature, with only creatures for company. The author's affinity is plain to behold: he describes watching how a given animal behaves, how the weather unfolds amid the forest, how a camp feels like home, how overarching nature's majesty is.n nThe invigorating aspect of being outdoors is admired by the author; the mountain air, tinged with the scents of trees, was thought to benefit health in the 19th century.

Other aspects of the book recount movements of the era; temperence from alcohol, and conflicts with the Native Americans, are alluded to.n nGeorge Washington Sears felt a sense of awe and wonder about nature while still a boy: his parent's books featuring Native Americans depicted a vast and beautiful habitats. Growing up to be a great lover of nature, Sears would often camp in the forests between working as a journalist and poet. He was an early proponent of the canoe as a means of exploring the rivers, and would undertake tours using these boats.n