A Forest Hymn

[3] It was first published in Boston in the United States Literary Gazette along with several other poems written by Bryant.

[4] Said to have been only conceivable by someone familiar with the "thick foliage and tall trunks of [the] primeval forests" in Massachusetts,[5] "A Forest Hymn" is said to have been Bryant's way of saying farewell to country life before moving to New York City in 1825,[6] which came about during a period where he wrote a large number of works.

We stand in thought in the heart of a great forest, under its broad roof of boughs, awed by the sacred influences of the place.

[1] At the pace of the wind "playing upon the leaves and the branches of the ancient woods,[9] Eleanor O'Grady has suggested that the poem be read in a smooth and gliding manner, as done in Median Stress.

[11] John Muir's first article advocating forest protection, a February 5, 1876, editorial in the Sacramento Daily Record-Union, alludes to Bryant's first line in its title: "God's First Temples: How Shall We Preserve Our Forests".