A Hermit Thrush Does Not Lament the Eagles

Superbowl Halftime shows got nothing on this songbird

Before television, a visual artist established credentials by printing visual artistry. Whereas most printers and engravers might offer the world a reliably routinized typography, some — like William Blake and F. Schuyler Mathews — offered typographic chaos and art, using the text to illustrate on form of mastery, and the graphics to show off an entirely different sort.

One was a world-shaking poet. The other…loved song birds.

Public domain image of William Blake from World History Archive. I’m really dubious that this is actually what Blake looked like.

Mathews lived in a world in which his engravings and poetry might be the only encounter with a Hermit Thrush that his readers would experience.

You, of course, have the opportunity to hear a Hermit Thrush any time you wish to click on a few links.

And those designs? Not even a click away…

The Hermit Thrush, by F. Schuyler Mathews, published by Project Gutenberg

The Hermit Thrush, by F. Schuyler Mathews, published by Project Gutenberg. Published in 1896, people thought that black and white ink prints were going extinct. Take another look at this art, and be grateful they didn’t.

Someone better schools in typography and fonts can correct my impressions, but this looks hand-drawn to my eye.

Is that a blackbird? A thrush? I can’t honestly tell. I suspect that the author had hand-drawn all of this, thought he would be able to sell the layout ideas to somebody, but after finding no takers, produced his own engraving and made a poem about a hike up to listen to a hermit thrush.

Note that while the song of the Hermit Thrush resonates splendorously, nobody in America really enjoys the song of an Eagle. Chiefs? Beautiful music from many a chief — but for all the Bald Eagle’s stunning grandeur, their chirp has nothing on the Hermit Thrush.