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IX

SAMUEL ROGERS

1763-1855

BIOGRAPHER of Samuel Rogers, "the banker-poet of England," suggests a reason why there are so few poets among bankers. He says that Rogers' greatest hindrance as a poet was his continuous prosperity! "From the beginning to the end of his life he was quite too comfortable for poetic thrills." If this theory be correct, then all the banker needs is a succession of black Fridays and blue Mondays to develop the thrills essential to poetic creation! But I remain of the opinion that poets are born -not made, and that, while Rogers was born with fine sensibilities and keen appreciation, it was not in him, either as poet or banker, to set the world on fire. Rogers wanted to be a Presbyterian minister, but his father made him a banker. He dutifully obeyed his father, though secretly bent on taking to the woods and becoming a poet. His literary career began in 1781, when, in his nineteenth year, he became a contributor to the "Gentleman's Magazine." At twenty-four he published anonymously his first book of poems. At twenty-nine he published anonymously the