LIST OF AMERICAN POEMS FOR SUPPLEMENTARY READING

POEMS FOR SUPPLEMENTARY READING

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES

WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT (1794-1878) is considered the Father of American Poets. While still a boy in his early home at Cummington, Massachusetts, he began to write verse and at the age of ten contributed his first poem to a country paper. When fourteen years old he wrote "The Embargo." In 1821 he removed to New York to become the associate editor of The Evening Post and three years later assumed the responsibility of editor. Thus Bryant was both a poet and a journalist. His pre-eminence as a poet he held for sixty-four years; in fact, he was the model of American verse until Longfellow appeared. These poems of his are worth special mention: "To the Fringed Gentian,” “The Death of the Flowers," "The Crowded Street," "My Country's Call," and "The Battlefield." Further facts about his life may be found in Stedman's Poets of America.

DANA BURNET (1888- ) was born in Cincinnati, Ohio. He was educated in Cornell and graduated from the College of Law in 1911. Since then he has held various positions on The Evening Sun, and is at the present time a special writer for that paper.

GUY WETMORE CARRYL (1873-1904) was born in New York City. He chose literature as his profession and finally became the Paris representative of Harper and Brothers. He has written many poems of value.

JOSEPH RODMAN DRAKE (1795-1820) spent his short life in his native city, New York. He is remembered for two fine poems, "The American Flag" and "The Culprit Fay." In his writings he was associated with Fitz-Greene Halleck who wrote a eulogy on Drake that is worth reading.

RALPH WALDO EMERSON (1803-1882) ranks as America's greatest essayist and from many viewpoints her foremost poet. He was for several years a Unitarian minister in Boston, the city of his birth, but retired to Concord, Massachusetts, in 1834. Here, amid ideal surroundings, he spent the remainder of his life, devoting most of his time to writing. As a popular and stimulating lecturer, he made the lyceum stage of his day a leading means of reform. His doctrine was the gospel of the worth of the individual. Among Emerson's writings should be mentioned his essays, especially the one entitled "Manners;" other prose works, particularly his lectures entitled Representative Men; poems, of which should be emphasized "Threnody," "The Problem" and "The Humblebee." A very readable account of his life is to

be found in Sanborn's Emerson and his Friends at Concord.

JOHN FINLEY (1863- ) was born in Grand Ridge, Illinois. He attended Knox College from which he graduated in 1887. He returned to Knox College as its president in 1892, remaining there seven years. In 1900 Mr. Finley went to Princeton as a professor of politics and retained that position until 1903. In 1913 he was made Commissioner of Education in New York State and President of the University of the State of New York. These positions Mr. Finley now holds. He has done considerable writing and lecturing. Among the best of his verse is the poem contained in this collection.

RICHARD WATSON GILDER (1844-1909) was widely known as a writer of magazine verse. Born in Bordentown, New Jersey, he was educated privately and later studied law in Philadelphia. He was assistant editor of Scribner's Monthly for some time; later he became editor-in-chief of The Century. Some of his collected. poems have the following titles: Five Books of Songs, In Palestine, Poems and Inscriptions.

FRANCIS BRET HARTE (1839-1902), although most often associated with the West, was born in Albany, New York. He went to California in his childhood where he remained until 1871. In

this year he went as consul to Germany and was later transferred to Scotland. He wrote thirty volumes of prose-mostly short stories as well as one of poetry. It is by the former that he is best remembered. The setting of most of his writings is the West of the gold-discovery era. He is the interpreter of the miners of those pioneer days. Among his stories are to be noted "The Luck of Roaring Camp," "Tennessee's Partner," and "The Outcasts of Poker Flat."

JOHN HAY (1838-1905) was an interesting product of the Middle West. He became a lawyer in 1861 and later served as assistant private secretary to Abraham Lincoln. He saw service in the Civil War where he was finally brevetted colonel. After a varied political career, he became Secretary of State under William McKinley. Notwithstanding all his official duties, he found time to do some writing, particularly poetry. The scenes of his Pike County Ballads, from which "Jim Bludso of the Prairie Belle" is taken, are laid in Arkansas when the Great West was in the making. The American Statesmen Series contains further facts about his life.

OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES (1809-1894) was a New Englander by birth, was educated as a physician, and served as professor of anatomy in Harvard University from 1847 to 1882. He became popular as a writer about the time The Atlantic Monthly was established in 1857. His fame rests on his poetry and his essays, among which may be mentioned The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table, "Bill and Joe," "How the Old Horse Won the Bet," "The Deacon's Masterpiece," and "Union and Liberty." Stedman has a good biographical sketch of the humorist in Poets of America.

JULIA WARD Howe (1819-1910) was born in New York City the same year as Lowell and Whitman. She was ardent in her support of the anti-slavery movement and woman suffrage. Among her many poems must not be forgotten that familiar song, "The Battle Hymn of the Republic."