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POETS OF AMERICA.

POETS OF AMERICA.

CHAPTER I.

EARLY AND RECENT CONDITIONS.

I.

It to current of poesy,

́T is my design to trace the current of poesy, deep- The au

of riches, knowledge, and power; to show an influence upon the national sentiment no less potent, if less obvious, than that derived from the historic records of our past; to watch the first dawning upon an eager people of "the happy, heavenly vision men call Art"; to observe closely and to set down with an honest hand our foremost illustrations of the Rise of Poetry in America. Such is my purpose, and I deem it not a mean one. We think of power and wealth as things in themselves, but they are strong and rich only in their relations to the life of man. The essential part of that

life is in his spirit, of which imagination is the king, and the sister arts, with poetry at their front, are to be accounted its highest forms of expression.

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thor's pur

pose.

The song of a nation is accepted as an ultimate test National of the popular spirit; as the earliest form of speech song. and the ripest, whether the utterance of feelings common to all, or of the fine and daring speculations of the noblest minds. Examine it, and form opinions of the country's general literature, of the hold upon art and action and scientific achievement. If we have

ress.

seen a true poetic movement in America, we may be sure that we have had marches in other fields of progThe inquiry concerning the genuineness and value of such a movement affords a title to this work, and a review of the conditions that have helped or hindered it must be included. Upon the method chosen for a study of the recent period in England, my present researches are devoted chiefly to the careers and productions of leading poets whose reputations are longCp. "Vic- established, and who, upon the whole, fairly represent torian Po- the various tendencies of American song. And thus, incidentally and with fresh opportunities, we may extend our knowledge of "the aim and province of the art of Poetry," and obtain under a new atmosphere further illustrations of the poetic temperament and life.

ets": p. 1.

The subject cannot be lightly entered upon, and as if for entertainment merely. Properly considered, there is no more suggestive undertaking than to review the first displays of lyrical genius in a land as notable as any upon earth. These may seem crude and familiar to ourselves, and possibly are not fully estimated by older nations whose very age and glory make them self-contained. But, if the future is to have a greatness of its own, a study of New World poetry is of equal importance with that devoted to the earlier or contemporary verse of the mother-land. Suggestion The reader, then, will do well to bear with the details of a prefatory analysis, though they lack that in terest which adheres to the lives and works of the various poets to whom his attention will be invited. The points which I shall make will not be wholly novel, but by grouping them newly, and in a logical manner, we may get some notion of the real quality of the first genuine awakening of our home-song.

to the reader.

For that there has been such an awakening is the

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