Lydia Connecticut, died, 1865. Frances Sargent Osgood, born in Massachusetts, 1811; died, 1850. work was a recreation. He wrote a good deal of was Another writer who composed many much admired occasional poems, especially for private occasions, was Mrs. Lydia Huntley Sigourney. She for many years one of the most popular American authors. Ballads and elegies and songs and descriptive pieces flowed easily from her pen. They are of a very uniform merit; but there is no one that has made any specially strong impression, or is remembered now. verse. Another graceful versifier of this period is Mrs. Frances Sargent Osgood. She is spoken of by some critics as the first American woman to write good Whether this is true or not, she wrote much, and acceptably to the critics and the public of her time. But the same comparative oblivion has overtaken her, as has hidden from the thoughts of this generation so many who were famous in their day. Mrs. Osgood published several volumes of poetry in this country and in England, and a complete edition of her poems was issued in New York in 1850. Pierpont, 1785; Percival, Connecticut, died in 1795; Wisconsin, 1856. John Pierpont, a native of Connecticut and a gradu- John ate of Yale, was a preacher and reformer who wrote born in good verses. He published, in 1840, "Airs of Pales- Connecticut, tine, and Other Poems." He was an antislavery man, died, 1866. and also actively interested in the temperance movement. His best-known poem is a spirited lyric, called "Warren's Address to his Men," and beginning with the line "Stand! The ground's your own, my braves." James Gates Percival is another native of Con- James Gates necticut and graduate of Yale College who gained born in distinction in Literature during this period. He was a man of varied accomplishments and abilities; a physician and student of science as well as a poet. He was a remarkable linguist, knowing ten languages, and was employed in philological work upon Webster's Dictionary. He wrote dramatic and lyric poetry, published a collection of poems in 1826, "The Dream of a Day" in 1843, besides scientific articles, translations, and essays. A complete collection of his poems was published in Boston in 1859. Percival wrote smooth and pretty verses. He is fluent, but cold and unimaginative. There is no fire nor passion in his work. It has never gained the attention of the people; but it has been admired by many, and with justice, for the fineness and delicacy of its style. A good example is the following: TO SENECA LAKE On thy fair bosom, silver lake, The wild swan spreads his snowy sail, The general effect of this descriptive piece is very pleasing. It is smooth as the placid surface of the lake it describes. It is cool as the moonlight gleam or the sunset and early morning effects it paints. Notice the perfect evenness of lines and the regularity of the iambic feet. Beginning rime, or alliteration, is frequently used. See lines 2, 3, 13, 15, 24. There are some examples, also, of that more difficult and delicate kind of alliteration in which the alliterating consonants are hidden within the words rather than displayed at the beginning. See, for examples of this, lines 6, 7, the r's in line 8, the st combination in line 19, and others. Percival was a student and scholar, in poetry, as in other lines, rather than a creative poet. ous forms of metre; and cessfully with the sonnet. work in this kind of verse. ΙΟ He experiments in variamong others, not unsucI give an example of his SONNET If on the clustering curls of thy dark hair, Sweet, solemn words, to which our spirits bow, A veil of tender light is mantling o'er thee; Around thy opening lips young loves are playing; Pause as thou movest by them to adore thee; By many a sudden blush and tear betraying How the heart trembles when it bends before thee. Notice the careful accuracy of form with which this is written. We find the same characteristics as in the other selection. Notice the hidden alliteration of the liquid 's in lines 5 and 7; and the assonance of the o and u sounds in lines 5 and 6. These two are very perfect lines in form and. in thought. There is a clearly marked advance in the thought at the opening of the sestet, and a rather unusual, but very effective, change to double Nathaniel or feminine rimes in that part of the sonnet. Nathaniel Parker Willis wrote graceful verses, and had considerable popularity in his versified render Parker Willis, born in Maine, 1867. 1806; died, George Pope Morris, 1802-1864. R. H. Wilde, 1789-1847. ings of Bible stories. It was of these that Lowell wrote in the "Fable for Critics": He'd better let Scripture alone, 'tis self-slaughter, For nobody likes inspiration and water; which is a witty expression of the delusion which critics share with many others, that nobody likes what they do not like. Many people did like these poems greatly; and it seems to some that in "Jephthah's Daughter," and in "Absalom," Willis told the beautiful old Scripture stories, with a real feeling of their infinite pathos, and in appropriate and dignified form. Willis will be spoken of again with reference to his prose work. A few names of verse-writers remain for very brief mention. George Pope Morris wrote many popular songs, of which "Woodman, Spare that Tree" is one of the better known. Richard Henry Wilde, a very accomplished statesman and scholar, of Georgia, and afterwards of Louisiana, is remembered by some for the sake of a beautiful little lyric which was published without his authority in 1815, and which has been repeatedly reprinted. It opens with the line, "My life is like the summer rose." A curious incident connected with this poem is the fact that a friend of Mr. Wilde translated it into Greek for his own amusement, and this Greek version somehow got into print, and was mistaken for an ode of Alcæus. Mr. Wilde was then accused of having published as original a translation from the Greek. John Howard Payne wrote and published a large number of plays. Africa, 1852. All these have been forgotten. But a simple little John born in New died in Tunis, |