educated at Yale.

The only distinctively Southern poets are Timrod and Randall; and their distinction is but political. Indeed the absence of even a Southern flavour is very remarkable.

5. PAULDING p. 10.

Allibone says, born in 1778; but Drake and Griswold say '79.

6. DANA-p. 16.

His Poems were first published collectively in 1827. I am informed that he was certainly alive in 1872, and I believe that he is living at the time of this present writing. A Richard Henry Dana junior was apparent quite recently. In all cases where I have not given date of death I believe the persons to be living, though of course I cannot be sure. The latest edition of Drake's Biography, generally trustworthy, is dated 1874; but internal evidence fixes its last revision at 1871.

7. THE CROSSED SWORDS-p. 22.

One belonged to the royalist Captain "Linzee" (or Lindsay?) of the Falcon sloop of war, that took part in the Bunker Hill fight, June 17, 1775; the other to the American Colonel Prescott. Thackeray begins his novel of The Virginians with a reference to these "On the library wall of one of the most famous writers of America" (William Hickling Prescott to wit) "there hang two swords," etc. The swords are now preserved by the Massachusetts Historical Society at Boston-"in memory of associations with which they will be inseparably connected."

8. BRYANT-p. 25.

Allibone says incorrectly-" born in 1797." Placing the Poets in chronological order of course prevents the same order for poems: Bryant's later poems, for instance, taking their position under his name many years anterior to some much earlier works of other writers immediately following. So in the compass of a few pages appear his Thanatopsis, published in 1821; To a Waterfowl, the Hymn to the North Star, the Death of the Flowers (then called the Close of Autumn) printed before 1829; and two of his latest poems, The Third of November 1861 and Waiting by the Gate. It was impossible to find out the date of every poem: the arrangement according to birth of writers was therefore the nearest approach

to order that could be had, though I have endeavoured in quoting from the greater writers to give specimens of both earlier and later periods, and as nearly as I could according to time of production. The critical reader should bear these remarks in mind when estimating the various merits of the poems.

9. THE FRINGED GENTIAN-p. 30.

This the blue fringed gentian-G. crinita (Froelich) is the Poet's favourite flower.

10. HALLECK-p. 37.

Drake says, born in 1790. Griswold and Allibone agree in 1795, with particulars which seem to vouch for their correctness. I have had to steer as I best could through several similar discrepancies.

11. JOHN HOWARD BRYANT-p. 82.

The brother of William Cullen Bryant.

12. WHITTIER-p. 86.

Drake has his birthday Dec: 17, 1807; Allibone says 1808. Whittier writes to me-"My birthday was the very last of the year 1807." Dec: 31.

13. SKIPPER IRESON'S RIDE-p. 87.

"Wild-eyed, free-limb'd, such as chase
Bacchus round some antique vase."

The New England pronunciation makes vase agree with chace.

14. BURIAL OF BARBOUR-P. 94.

Barbour was one of the first slain of those brave men who endeavoured by settling in the new territories to shut out slavery, restricting it at all costs within the original State limits. John Brown's first work was in the same cause.

15. TELLING THE BEES-p. 100.

An old English superstition preserved in New England. Else, it was thought, the bees would desert their hives and remove to another homestead.

The chore-girl is the girl who does odd jobs-" chores "—about the house: chore-woman, I suppose, the same as our charwoman.

16. PIKE-p. 115.

Mr. Rossetti prints a report from "an American friend" of the death of Pike while a General in the Confederate army. Allibone says-The death of Col. Albert James Pickett (an author also) in Dec: 1858, led to a report of the demise of Col. Albert Pike. Dictionary of Authors, 1870. Colonel Pike is still alive.

17. POE-p. 119.

Poe, according to Allibone (and other biographers), was born in 1811 assuming which date, he was placed at school in London at the age of five years; and when aged eleven years entered the University of Virginia, whence he was expelled at the end of his third term after being "equally distinguished as a scholar, an athlete, and a debauchee." Rather young for a debauchee! Griswold, accepting these improbable dates, yet himself contradicts them, placing Poe at school in Richmond (Virginia) when six or seven years old, at which age (if born in 1811) he was certainly in England. Mr. Stoddard writes-"Poe was really born in 1809. The place of his birth is uncertain. It was not Baltimore, however, but some city or town in which his mother was playing a theatrical engagement (could it have been New York?)." Harper's New Monthly Magazine, September, 1872. Poe was sixteen when he entered the University in 1825.

18. SARGENT-p. 145.

Allibone says, born in 1814.

19. CHANNING-p. 159.

William Ellery Channing the poet is a nephew of Dr. Channing the great Unitarian preacher.

20. THE OLD ABBEYS-p. 162.

The poet-an episcopal clergyman-refers here to the desecration of the Abbeys (rather the Cathedrals) during the Commonwealth and their hoped-for restoration under Charles the Second.

21. THE MORNING-GLORY-p. 183.

This is the New England name for the Major Convolvolus. The author was the wife of James Russell Lowell. I have deviated slightly from order of birth to place more fittingly together the

names of Mr. and Mrs. Lowell, Mr. and Mrs. Stoddard, and the sisters Alice and Phoebe Cary. Robert Trail Spence Lowell is J. R. Lowell's brother.

22. DIRGE-p. 190.

Written on the death of Mrs. Mary Booth, the first wife of Edwin Booth the actor.

23. WHITMAN-p. 199.

I may here ask pardon of some of my authors if in endeavouring at one uniform system of punctuation I offend their peculiarities. I have cared to keep what seemed the author's own, especially with Whitman whose manner is altogether his; but when the points and accents were apparently only printers' errors or redundancies I have altered them to suit an order which has at least the merit of intelligibility. I have kept, for uniformity's sake also, to English spelling, which does not always agree with more modern American. Whitman's Dresser, beyond its value as poetry, was worth giving as a record of his own noble life.

24. BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC-P. 216.

This grand martial lyric, the best during the war, is set to the truly national air of “John Brown,”—the genuine words of which (who the author or how originating not appearing to be known) I→ give as I had them, some eight years ago, from one of the old hero's party

John Brown's knapsack was strapp'd upon his back,
John Brown's knapsack was strapp'd upon his back,
John Brown's knapsack was strapp'd upon his back,
As he went marching on.

Glory! glory, hallelujah!
Glory! glory! glory, hallelujah!
Glory! glory, hallelujah!

As he went marching on.

John Brown's body was hang'd upon a tree; (thrice)
His soul went marching on.

Glory! etc.

His soul went marching on.

John Brown's body is mouldering in the grave; (tirice)

His soul is marching on.

Glory! etc.

His soul is marching on.

He's gone to be a soldier in the Army of the Lord; (thrice)
His soul is marching on.

Glory! etc.

His soul is marching on.

The stars of heaven are looking kindly down (thrice)
On the grave of old John Brown.

25. HELEN FISKE JACKSON-p. 294.

Mrs. Jackson's Poems are published under the initials H. H., being at the time of publication Mrs. Hunt.

26. KIT CARSON'S RIDE-p. 340.

she

It is proper to note here that Mrs. Fremont, the wife of General Fremont, indignantly denies not only this story told by Miller, but even its verisimilitude. She speaks, on the contrary, of Kit Carson (and from the knowledge of long personal friendship) as a very noble backwoodsman and pioneer, not lawless, but of good repute, and utterly incapable of the despicable cowardice attributed to him by the poet. Mr. Rossetti is my authority for Miller's age.

27. MARYLAND-p. 345.

This is the only poem I find worth quoting out of a volume of Southern War Rhymes, mostly by anonymous writers. Of Randall I can obtain no data. The "new key to thy song" is a punning allusion to Key's Star-spangled Banner, written at Baltimore. "Sic Semper" is the motto of the State of Maryland.

28. THE SPARROW AT SEA-p. 350.

"A warbling bird whose carol rings "-America has a songsparrow-fringilla melodia-which may have led our author into a mistake as to the powers of the English bird.

Here, and in other cases where I have not given date or place of birth it is because even direct inquiry by letter has failed to bring me the desired information. I therefore have placed the authors at or near the end of my list, not meaning that they are of the youngest. The name of Rose Terry (now Mrs. Rollin Cooke) I find in Dana's Household Book of Poetry (the best collection I know of English and American), edition 1862.