LOCAL AND NATIONAL

POETS OF AMERICA

WITH INTERESTING

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES AND CHOICE SELECTIONS FROM

OVER ONE THOUSAND LIVING AMERICAN POETS.

THE ONLY COMPLETE BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY OF LOCAL AND NATIONAL
POETS OF AMERICA, CONTAINING NUMEROUS SELECTIONS

PROFUSELY ILLUSTRATED WITH OVER FIVE HUNDRED
LIFE-LIKE PORTRAITS.

EDITED AND COMPILED UNDER THE SUPERVISION OF

THOS. W. HERRINGSHAW,

=

AUTHOR OF

HOME OCCUPATIONS,"

"PROMINENT MEN AND WOMEN OF THE DAY," "AIDS TO
MULIEROLOGY," ETC.

LITERARY SUCCESS"

"GREAT OAKS FROM LITTLE ACORNS GROW."

CHICAGO, ILL.:

AMERICAN PUBLISHERS' ASSOCIATION.

AS ONE of the fine arts, Poetry has not received the encouragement and appreciation in America that is deservedly due to such an important and beautiful branch of literature

an art that has indis

putably played a significant part as one of the factors in shaping the
destiny of so great a nation. "No one," says George Parsons Lathrop,
"is so bold as to affirm that, as a nation, we are poetic. With Germans
Poetry is a part of daily life: it lives not only on their lips but in their
hearts as well. Not so with us. Our appreciation of it is generally too
theoretical, conventional, perfunctory, and involves a trice of apology for
being interested in anything so unpractical.
One thing is cer-
tain. Whatever the American people think of poetry — and as to this
they themselves still appear to be quite vague — it is perfectly clear that
they do not think enough about it. If they did, they would know good
poetry when they saw it; they would sometimes honor the chief makers
thereof, wisely and soberly; they would cause the art and the percep-
tion of genuine poetry to be as carefully studied in every school and
college as arithmetic and drawing and modeling now generally are stud-
ied. They would sustain literature in a generous spirit, make poetry a
vital factor in the family and national life; and give to the accredited
poet a distinguished place in the social and political order.”

But, perhaps, when defective rhyme, rhythm, measure, and crude work generally (once allowable and still so prevalent in almost every nation) are no more tolerated; when vowel composition (the arrangement of one vowel in regard to another) receives proper attention and

LOCAL AND NATIONAL POETS OF AMERICA.

is studied with the same care that was evidently bestowed upon it by the Greek masters,―then will the art become more dignified, and as a natural consequence receive fuller recognition from competent critics, the metroplitan press, lovers of American literature and art, and from the masses generally. At all events it is to be hoped that the time is not far distant when Americans will more fully appreciate and pay tribute at the shrine of Poetry and Song as the equal and twin-sister of Music. Indeed, the alliance between Poetry and Music, says a writer in the British Britannica, is of very ancient date, and appears originally to have been constant. The praises of gods and heroes, the triumphal strains of happiness and victory, and the lamentations of affliction and defeat, were sung in measure to the sound of the rude instruments which art had invented in almost every country of which there is any historical record. In process of time, however, as Poetry became the vehicle of a wider range of sentiment, the accompaniment of music was often found inconvenient, and a recitation more approaching to common speech was then substituted.

The Britannica concisely defines absolute Poetry as the concrete and artistic expression of the human mind in emotional and rhythmical language. No literary expression can, properly speaking, be called Poetry that is not in a deep sense emotional (whatever may be its subject matter), concrete in its method and its diction, rhythmical in movement, and artistic in form. The saying of Wordsworth, "That which comes from the heart goes to the heart," applies very closely indeed to modern Poetry, and when any writer's verse embodies a message, true, direct and pathetic, the degree of artistic perfection with which it is delivered has generally been silently passed over. We listen to the poet we allow him to address us in rhythm or rhyme - we allow him to sing to us while other men are only allowed to talk, not because the poet argues more logically than they, but because he feels more deeply and perhaps more truly. Hence the great difference between Poetry and Prose is that the one comes from the heart, while the other is a product of the mind.

LOCAL AND NATIONAL POETS OF AMERICA.

iii

Anyone who derides the local press and its bevy of embryo writers and poets, whether they be deserving of censure or not, at once stamps himself to be a narrow-minded person with a brain of rather small calibre. The local papers are to a great extent entitled to the credit of producing, either directly or indirectly, nearly all of our prominent poets and writers as well as the humbler ones. Their columns are generally opened to any local effort that is of passable quality, and the interest and ambition thus engendered and fostered have caused new and special endeavors to be taken by these literary aspirants. Therefore, the importance of the local press and its writers must not be lost sight of, for without them it is not at all improbable that America could not now boast of such men as Whittier, Emerson, et. al., whose poems and writings first appeared almost exclusively in the local press.

In the compilatlon of LOCAL AND NATIONAL POETS OF AMERICA, the principal object has been to present the best poems of each writer and on as different topics as possible, and the work consequently includes many varieties of Poetry clothed in numerous forms. Brief as are the biographical sketches, they serve somewhat as a medium of introduction to the reader; and especially is this apparent when the sketch is accompanied with a portrait. Poets of local fame, together with those of a more national reputation, have been given a place in LOCAL AND NATIONAL POETS OF AMERICA, but no claims whatever are made for the superiority of its contents; to winnow the chaff from the wheat, and to judge of the merits of these poems, is left entirely to the reader-a task that will undoubtedly prove a source of both profit and pleasure. Many of the names and faces here presented will be recognized by readers as familiar acquaintances, while those of others are known only in their own locality. The work itself will be both a surprise and a delight to the world of literature a surprise to learn that America is so rich in Poets and Poesy, and a delight in being thus afforded an opportunity of

making

a study of such a large and varied collection of gems from living writers of America.