Various authors - American Poetry: The Nineteenth Century, <em>volume one</em>: Freneau to Whitman

American Poetry: The Nineteenth Century, volume one: Freneau to Whitman

"Capacious, comprehensive, wide-ranging, and judiciously fair, the Library of America anthology presents the great body of American poetry in the century of the Louisiana Purchase, the Alamo, the Civil War, the expansion of the western frontier, the gilded age and the age of innocence. All the major figures and minor prophets are represented, in proportions both ample and calculated to reflect degrees of greatness."
—The Washington Post

Overview | Note on the Texts | Reviews | Table of Contents

The choice of text for each of the poems selected for inclusion in this volume has been made on the basis of a study of its textual history and a comparison of editions printed during the author's lifetime, along with relevant manuscripts, periodical appearances, contemporary anthologies, and posthumous editions. In general, each text is from the earliest book edition prepared with the author's participation; revised editions are sometimes followed, in light of the degree of authorial supervision and the stage of the writer's career at which the revisions were made, but the preference has been for the authorially approved book version closest to the date of composition. For some popular poems widely disseminated in periodicals, however, the early periodical versions have been preferred; for example, Francis Scott Key's late revisions to "The Star-Spangled Banner" in his collected poems have been rejected in favor of the earlier periodical version (printed here as "Defence of Fort McHenry"). Manuscript sources (such as those for Thoreau's "Guido's Aurora," "Music," and "Inspiration") have been used only when no printed text appears to be authoritative.

The following is a list of the sources of all the texts included in this volume, listed alphabetically by the authors of the poems.

John Quincy Adams. The Wants of Man; To the Sun-Dial; To Sally: Poems of Religion and Society (New York: William Graham, 1850).

A. Bronson Alcott. Sonnet XIV; Sonnet XVIII; Sonnet XIX: Sonnets and Canzonets (Boston: Roberts Brothers, 1882).

Washington Allston. from The Sylphs of the Seasons; On a Falling Group in the Last Judgement of Michael Angelo; On the Group of the Three Angels Before the Tent of Abraham, by Raffaelle, in the Vatican; On Seeing the Picture of �olus by Peligrino Tibaldi, in the Institute at Bologna; On Rembrant; Occasioned by His Picture of Jacob's Dream; On the Luxembourg Gallery; To My Venerable Friend, the President of the Royal Academy: The Sylphs of the Seasons (London: W. Pople, 1813). America to Great Britain: Samuel Taylor Coleridge (ed.), Sibylline Leaves (London: Rest Fenner, 1817). Coleridge: Rufus Griswold (ed.), Gems from the American Poets (Philadelphia: H. Hooker, 1844). Art; On the Statue of an Angel, by Bienaim� On Kean's Hamlet; A Word: Man; On Michael Angelo; Rubens:Lectures on Art, and Poems (New York: Baker & Scribner, 1850).

Joel Barlow. from The Columbiad: The Columbiad (Philadelphia: C. & A. Conrad & Co.; Baltimore: Conrad, Lucas and Company, 1809). Advice to a Raven in Russia: Huntington Library Quarterly, October 1938. Reprinted with the permission of the Henry E. Huntington Library.

Manoah Bodman. from An Oration on Death: An Oration on Death (Williamsburgh, Massachusetts: Ephraim Whitman, 1817).

Charles Timothy Brooks. Our Island Home; Lines: Composed at the Old Temples of Maralipoor: Poems, Original and Translated (Boston: Roberts Brothers, 1885).

Maria Gowen Brooks. from Zophi�l, or the Bride of Seven: Canto the Third, Palace of the Gnomes; Composed at the Request of a Lady, and Descrip-tive of Her Feelings: Zophi�l or, The Bride of Seven (Boston: Hilliard, Gray & Co., 1834).

William Cullen Bryant. Thanatopsis; "I Cannot Forget With What Fervid Devotion"; To a Waterfowl; Inscription for the Entrance to a Wood; Green River; A Winter Piece; "Oh Fairest of the Rural Maids"; The Ages; The Rivulet; Summer Wind; An Indian at the Burying-Place of His Fathers; After a Tempest; Autumn Woods; November; Forest Hymn; The Conjunction of Jupiter and Venus; October; The Damsel of Peru'; To an American Painter Departing for Europe; To the Fringed Gentian: Poems (New York: E. Bliss, 1832). The Prairies: Poems (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1836). The Fountain; The Painted Cup: Poems: Third Edition (Philadelphia: Carey & Hart, 1847). The Night Journey of a River; The Constellations; Dante: Poems, Collected and Arranged by the Author (New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1872).

Josiah D. Canning. The Indian Gone!: Poems (Greenfield, Massachusetts: Phelps & Ingersoll, 1838).

William Ellery Channing. The Harbor: Poems (Boston: Little & Brown, 1843). Hymn of the Earth; The Barren Moors; Walden: Poems: Second Series (Boston: James Munroe, 1847). Murillo's Magdalen: F. B. Sanborn (ed.), Poems of Sixty-Five Years (Philadelphia and Concord: James H. Bentley, 1902).

Lydia Maria Child. The New-England Boy's Song About Thanksgiving Day: Flowers for Children (New York: C. S. Francis, 1844).

Thomas Holley Chivers. To Isa Sleeping: The Lost Pleiad (New York: Edward O. Jenkins, 1845). Avalon: Eonchs of Ruby: A Gift of Love (New York: Spalding & Shepard, 1851). Apollo; Lily Adair; The Wind: Virginalia; or, Songs of My Summer Nights (Philadelphia: Lippincott, Grambo, 1853).

Thomas Cole. "I saw a Cave of sable depth profound"; A Painter; Lines Suggested by Hearing Music on the Boston Common at Night; The Voyage of Life, Part 2nd; The Dial; Lago Maggiore: Thomas Cole Papers, Manuscripts and Special Collections section, New York State Library. The Lament of the Forest: The Knickerbocker, June 1841.

Philip Pendleton Cooke. Florence Vane; Orthone: Froissart Ballads and Other Poems (Philadelphia: Carey & Hart, 1847).

Christopher Pearse Cranch. Correspondences; Enosis: Poems (Philadelphia: Carey & Hart, 1844). The Bird and the Bell; The Cataract Isle; In the Palais Royal Garden; Cornucopia; The Spirit of the Age; The Evening Primrose; December; My Old Palette; Music; Bird Language: The Bird and the Bell, with Other Poems (Boston: James R. Osgood & Co., 1875). An Old Cat's Confession: The Riverside Magazine for Young People, Vol. IV, 1870. from Seven Wonders of the World: Ariel and Caliban with Other Poem (Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1887).

Richard Henry Dana. The Dying Raven; The Pleasure Boat; Daybreak; The Husband's and Wife's Grave: Poems (Boston: Bowles & Dearborn, 1827). The Chanting Cherubs: Poems and Prose Writings (Boston: Russell, Odiorne & Co., 1833).

Samuel Henry Dickson. Song--Written at the North: Verses (privately printed, 1843).

Joseph Rodman Drake. The Mocking-Bird: The Portfolio, May 1812. The National Painting: The National Advocate, March 15, 1819. from The Culprit Fay; The American Flag; Niagara; To a Friend; Bronx: The Culprit Fay and Other Poems (New York: George Dearborn, 1835).

Ralph Waldo Emerson. The Sphinx; Each and All; The Problem; To Rhea; The Visit; Uriel; The World-Soul; Mithridates; Hamatreya; The Rhodora; The Humble-Bee; The Snow-Storm; from Woodnotes II; from Monadnoc; Fable; Ode, Inscribed to W. H. Channing; Astr�a; Compensation; Forerunners; Sursum Corda; Give All to Love; Eros; from Initial, D�monic, and Celestial Love; Merlin I; Merlin II; Bacchus; Merops; Saadi; Xenophanes; The Day's Ration; Blight; Musketaquid; Threnody; Hymn: Sung at the Completion of the Concord Monument: Poems (Boston: James Munroe & Company, 1847). Brahma; Freedom; Voluntaries; Days; Sea-Shore; Song of Nature; Two Rivers; Waldeinsamkeit; Terminus; Suum Cuique; Memory; Compensation ("The wings of Time are black and white"); Spiritual Laws; Art; Experience; Fate; Worship: May-Day and Other Pieces (Boston: Ticknor & Fields, 1867). The Harp; Wealth: Selected Poems (Boston: James R. Osgood & Co., 1876). Nature (1836): Nature; Addresses, and Lectures (Boston: James Munroe & Co., 1849). History; Self-Reliance; Circles: Essays: First Series (Boston: James Munroe & Co., 1847). Nature (1844); Nominalist and Realist: Essays: Second Series (Boston: James Munroe & Co., 1844). Illusions: The Conduct of Life (Boston: Ticknor & Fields, 1860). Grace; "Awed I behold once more"; "Dear brother, would you know the life"; "Who knows this or that"; Intellect; "The patient Pan"; Maia: Ralph H. Orth et al. (eds.), The Poetry Notebooks of Ralph Waldo Emerson (Columbia, Missouri: University of Missouri Press, 1986). Copyright � 1986 by The Ralph Waldo Emerson Memorial Association.

Daniel Decatur Emmett. Dixie's Land: Sheet music, ca. 1860 (New York: Firth & Pond). Boatman's Dance: Songs of the Virginia Minstrels (Boston: C.H. Keith, 1843).

Thomas Dunn English. Ben Bolt: American Ballads (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1879).

Philip Freneau. On the Civilization of the Western Aboriginal Country: True American, July 20, 1822. On the Great Western Canal of the State of New York: Fredonian, August 8, 1822. To Mr. Blanchard, the Celebrated Aeronaut in America: New York Weekly Museum, September 21, 1816. On the Conflagrations at Washington: A Collection of Poems on American Affairs (New York: David Longworth, 1815).

Margaret Fuller. Sistrum: Arthur Fuller (ed.), Life Without and Life Within(Boston: Brown, Taggart, & Chase, 1860). Flaxman: Julia Ward Howe, Margaret Fuller (Boston: Roberts Brothers, 1883).

Fitz-Greene Halleck. On the Death of Joseph Rodman Drake; Alnwick Castle; Marco Bozzaris: Alnwick Castle, with Other Poems (New York: G. & C. Carvill, 1827) . Red Jacket: Alnwick Castle, second edition (New York: George Dearborn, 1836). from Connecticut: Poetical Works (New York: Redfield, 1852).

Nathaniel Hawthorne. "I left my low and humble home": The Spectator, August 21, 1820; "Oh could I raise the darken'd veil": The Spectator, September 4, 1820; The Ocean: Salem GazetteXXXIX, August 26, 1825. Reprinted by permission of Nathaniel Hawthorne Papers, James Duncan Phillips Library, Peabody & Essex Museum, Salem, Massachusetts.

Josiah Gilbert Holland. from The Marble Prophecy: The Marble Prophecy and Other Poems (New York: Scribner, Armstrong & Co., 1872).

Oliver Wendell Holmes. Old Ironsides: Poems (Boston: Otis, Broaders, 1836). The Chambered Nautilus; The Living Temple; The Deacon's Masterpiece: Or The Wonderful "One-Hoss-Shay"; Contentment; The Voiceless: The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table (Boston: Phillips, Sampson & Co., 1858). The Two Streams: The Professor at the Breakfast-Table (Boston: Ticknor & Fields, 1860) . from Wind-Clouds and Star-Drifts: III. Sympathies: The Poet at the Breakfast-Table (Boston: J. R. Osgood & Co., 1872). Nearing the Snow-Line: Songs of Many Seasons (Boston: James R. Osgood & Co.,1875). The Flaneur; Prelude to a Volume Printed in Raised Letters for the Blind: Before the Curfew (Boston: Houghton & Mifflin, 1888).

George Moses Horton. On Liberty and Slavery; On Hearing of the Intention of a Gentleman to Purchase the Poet's Freedom: The Hope of Liberty (Raleigh: Gales & Son, 1829).

Julia Ward Howe. My Last Dance: Passion-Flowers (Boston: Ticknor, Reed & Fields, 1853). Battle-Hymn of the Republic: Later Lyrics (Boston: J.E. Tilton & Co., 1887).

Fanny Kemble. To the Wissahiccon; Impromptu: Poems (Philadelphia: John Penington, 1844).

Francis Scott Key. Defence of Fort McHenry Analectic Magazine, 1814.

Abraham Lincoln. My Childhood-Home I See Again: Roy P. Basler (ed.), The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln (New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, 1953-55).

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. The Spirit of Poetry; Hymn to the Night: Voices of the Night (Cambridge: John Owen, 1839). A Psalm of Life; Seaweed; Curfew: Poems (Philadelphia: Carey & Hart, 1845). The Wreck of the Hesperus: Poems (Boston: Ticknor & Fields, 1856). The Village Blacksmith; The Skeleton in Armour: Ballads and Other Poems (Cambridge: John Owen, 1842). The Warning: Poems on Slavery (Cambridge: John Owen, 1842). Mezzo Cammin: Samuel Longfellow, Life of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, vol. I (Boston: Ticknor & Co., 1886). The Day Is Done; Afternoon in February; The Bridge; The Evening Star; Autumn: The Belfry of Bruges and Other Poems (Cambridge: John Owen, 1846). The Fire of Drift-Wood: The Seaside and the Fireside (Boston: Ticknor, Reed & Fields, 1850). from Evangeline: Evangeline (Boston: W.D. Ticknor & Co., 1847). The Jewish Cemetery at Newport; My Lost Youth: The Courtship of Miles Standish and Other Poems (Boston: Ticknor & Fields, 1858). from The Song of Hiawatha: The Song of Hiawatha (Boston: Ticknor & Fields, 1855). The Children's Hour; Prelude: The Wayside Inn; Snow-Flakes: Tales of a Wayside Inn (Boston: Ticknor & Fields, 1863). The Landlord's Tale: Paul Revere's Ride: Poetical Works (Boston: Ticknor & Fields, 1866). The Spanish Jew's Tale: Azrael; Aftermath: Aftermath (Boston: James R. Osgood, 1873). Divina Commedia: Complete Works: Revised Edition, vol. 4 (Boston: James R. Osgood, 1873). Belisarius; Chaucer: The Masque of Pandora and Other Poems (Boston: James R. Osgood, 1875). K�ramos; Venice; The Harvest Moon: K�ramos and Other Poems (Boston: Houghton, Osgood & Co., 1878). The Cross of Snow: Samuel Longfellow, Life of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, vol. 2 (Boston: Ticknor & Co., 1886). The Tide Rises, the Tide Falls: Poetical Works, Subscription Edition (Boston: Houghton, Osgood & Co., 1880). Night: Ultima Thule (Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1880). Couplet: February 24, 1847; Fragment: December 18, 1847; The Poet's Calendar; from Elegiac Verse; The Bells of San Blas: In the Harbor. Ultima Thule--Part II (Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co.)., 1882).

James Russell Lowell. from The Present Crisis: Poems, Second Series (Boston: George Nichols, 1848). from A Fable for Critics: A Fable for Critics (New York: G. P. Putnam, 1848, second printing). from The Biglow Papers: Letter Six--The Pious Editor's Creed: The Biglow Papers (Boston: George Nichols, 1848). from The Vision of Sir Launfal: Prelude to Part the First: The Vision of Sir Launfal (Cambridge, Massachusetts: George Nichols, 1848). Remembered Music--A Fragment: Poems, Second Series (Boston: George Nichols, 1848). from Under the Willows; Ode Recited at the Harvard Comemoration, July 21, 1865: Under the Willows and Other Poems (Boston: Fields, Osgood & Co., 1869).

Cornelius Mathews. from Poems on Man in His Various Aspects Under the American Republic: Poems on Man in His Various Aspects Under the American Republic (New York: Wiley & Putnam, 1843).

Clement Moore. A Visit from St. Nicholas: Poems (New York: Bartlett & Welford, 1844).

George Pope Morris. The Oak: The Deserted Bride and Other Poems (New York: Adlard & Saunders, 1838).

John Neal. from The Battle of Niagara: The Battle of Niagara ... and Goldau (Baltimore: N. G. Maxwell, 1818).

James Kirke Paulding. from The Backwoodsman: The Backwoodsman (Philadel-phia: M. Thomas, 1818).

John Howard Payne. Home, Sweet Home!: Clari; or, The Maid of Milan (London: John Miller, 1823).

James Gates Percival. The Coral Grove: Poems (New York: Wiley, 1823).

John Pierpont. from Airs of Palestine: Airs of Palestine (Baltimore: B. Edes, 1816). from A Word from a Petitioner; The Fugitive Slave's Apostrophe to the North Star: Airs of Palestine, and Other Poems (Boston: James Munroe and Co., 1840).

Edward Coote Pinkney. Italy; The Voyager's Song; To.......; Serenade; A Health; On Parting; The Widow's Song: Poem (Baltimore: Joseph Robinson, 1825).

Edgar Allan Poe. "Stanzas": Tamerlane and Other Poems (Boston: Calvin F. S. Thomas, 1827). The Lake-- To-- --; To Science; Al Aaraaf; Romance; Fairy-Land; To Helen; The Valley of Unrest; The City in the Sea; To F--; Silence: The Raven and Other Poems (New York: Wiley & Putnam, 1845). "Alone"; Israfel; The Haunted Palace; The Bells: Reprinted by permission of the publishers from The Collected Works of Edgar Allan Poe, Volume I, Thomas Ollive Mabbott, editor, Cambridge, Mass.: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Copyright � 1969 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College. The Coliseum; For Annie: Rufus Wilmot Griswold (ed.), The Works of the Late Edgar Allan Poe (New York: J. S. Redfield, 1850-56). The Conqueror Worm; Dream-Land; Ulalume---A Ballad: Floyd Stovall (ed.), The Poems of Edgar Allan Poe(Charlottesville, Virginia: University Press of Virginia, 1965; reprinted by permission). Lenore: Richmond Daily Whig, September 18, 1849. The Raven: Semi-Weekly Examine (Richmond), September 25, 1849. Eldorado: Flag of Our Union (Boston) April 12, 1849. Annabel Lee: Southern Literary Messenger (Rich-mond, Va.) November 1849.

Epes Sargent. The Planet Jupiter; The Sea-Breeze at Matanzas; Rockall: Songs of the Sea, with Other Poems (Boston: James Munroe & Co., 1847).

Edmund Hamilton Sears. "It came upon the midnight clear": Songs and Sermons of the Christian Life (Boston: Noyes, Holmes, 1875).

Lydia Huntley Sigourney. Indian Names: Poems (Philadelphia: Key & Biddle, 1834).

William Gilmore Simms. The Lost Pleiad: The Vision of Cortes, Cain, and Other Poems (Charleston: James S. Burges, 1829). By the Swanannoa: Grouped Thoughts and Scattered Fancies (Richmond: William Macfarlane, 1845). from The City of the Silent: The City of the Silent (Charleston: Walker & James, 1850). The New Moon: Poems(New York: Redfield, 1853).

William Wetmore Story. Cleopatra: Graffiti d'Italia (Edinburgh & London: William Blackwood & Sons, 1868). from A Contemporary Criticism: Poems (Edinburgh & London: William Blackwood & Sons, 1885).

Henry David Thoreau. "They who prepare my evening meal below"; "On fields oer which the reaper's hand has passd"; Fog: John C. Broderick (general ed.), The Writings of Henry David Thoreau: Journal, Vol. I: 1837-1844. Copyright � 1981 by Princeton University Press. Reprinted by permission. "Dong, sounds the brass in the east"; Rumors from an &Aelig;olian Harp; "My life has been the poem I would have writ"; "I am a parcel of vain strivings tied": A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers (Boston: Ticknor & Fields, 1868). "Light-winged Smoke, Icarian bird": Walden (Boston: Ticknor & Fields, 1854). Guido's Aurora; Music: The Pierpont Morgan Library, New York. MA 920. Inspiration: Photograph of a lost manuscript offered for sale in 1924 with the Stephen H. Workman collection.

Jones Very. The New Birth; "In Him we live, & move, & have our being"; The Morning Watch; The Garden; The Song; The Latter Rain; The Dead; Thy Brother's Blood; The Earth; The Cup; The New World; The New Man; The Created; Autumn Leaves; The Hand and the Foot; The Eye and Ear; Yourself; The Lost; The Prayer; The Cottage; The Strangers; The Wild Rose of Plymouth; The Lament of the Flowers; Autumn Flowers; The Origin of Man, I: Helen Deese (ed.), Jones Very: The Complete Poems (University of Georgia Press, 1993); copyright � 1993 Helen R. Deese.

Sarah Helen Whitman. To -- -- : Poems (Boston: Houghton, Osgood & Co., 1879).

Walt Whitman. Leaves of Grass (1855): Leaves of Grass (Brooklyn, 1855). from Leaves of Grass (1860): Leaves of Grass (Boston: Thayer & Eldridge, 1860). from Leaves of Grass(1891-92): Leaves of Grass (Philadelphia: David McKay, 1891-92).

John Greenleaf Whittier. Proem: Poems (Boston: B. B. Mussey & Co., 1849). Song of Slaves in the Desert; The Haschish; Maud Muller; The Barefoot Boy: The Panorama (Boston: Ticknor & Fields, 1856). from Songs of La-bor: Dedication; Ichabod!: Songs of Labor and Other Poems (Boston: Ticknor, Reed & Fields, 1850). Astr&aeilg;a; First-Day Thoughts: The Chapel of the Hermits and Other Poems (Boston: Ticknor & Fields, 1852). Skipper Ireson's Ride; Telling the Bees; My Playmate: Home Ballads and Poems (Boston: Ticknor & Fields, 1860). Barbara Frietchie: In War Time and Other Poems(Boston: Ticknor & Fields, 1868). What the Birds Said: The Tent on the Beach and Other Poems (Boston: Ticknor & Fields, 1867). Snow-Bound: Snow-Bound (Boston: Ticknor & Fields, 1866). from Among the Hills: Prelude: Among the Hills and Other Poems (Boston: Fields, Osgood & Co., 1869). My Triumph: Miriam and Other Poems (Boston: Fields, Osgood & Co., 1871). Burning Drift-Wood: At Sundown (Cambridge: Riverside, 1890).

Carlos Wilcox. from The Age of Benevolence: Remains (Hartford: Hopkins, 1828).

Richard Henry Wilde. The Lament of the Captive: New York Mirror, February 28, 1835. To the Mocking-Bird; from Hesperia: Hesperia. A Poem (Boston: Ticknor & Fields, 1867).

Nathaniel Parker Willis. January 7, 1829; Psyche, Before the Tribunal of Venus: Fugitive Poetry (Boston: Pierce & Williams, 1829). from Melanie; The Confessional: Melanie, and Other Poems (London: Saunders & Oatley, 1835). Unseen Spirits; City Lyrics; The Lady in the White Dress, Whom I Helped Into the Omnibus: Poems, Sacred, Passionate, and Humorous (New York: Clarke & Austin, 1844). To Charles Roux, of Switzerland: Sacred Poems (New York: Clarke, Austin & Smith, 1859).

Samuel Woodworth. The Bucket: Melodies, Duets, Songs, and Ballads (New York: James M. Campbell, 1826).

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