GEMS OF POETRY, FROM FORTY-EIGHT AMERICAN POETS. EMBRACING THE MOST POPULAR AUTHORS. WITH PORTRAITS. HARTFORD: S. ANDRUS AND SON. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1838, by OTIS, BROADERS, AND COMPANY, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of Massachusetts PREFACE. THIS little volume is confidently offered to the public, as a suitable companion for the adult or the juvenile class of readers, and with the confident hope that the beautiful productions, of which it is composed, will be duly appreciated by every admirer of polite literature. Our poetry is, as yet, almost entirely lyric in its character. Barlow's Columbiad is an exception; but that work, though not contemptible, is deficient in all the properties of a great poem. No one, in these days, would think of quoting it as a production honorable to our infant literature. The lumbering epic of Dr. Dwight, though marked with passages of beauty, is yet little better than dull prose, measured off into indifferent pentameters. An obruit oblivio is already its doom. There have been other long-winded attempts in verse, claiming the title of epics, which it is now the part of humanity to forget. Our poetical history cannot be traced back, with much credit tc ourselves, beyond the last war. Since that period few of our poets have attempted to soar beyond the lyric in their efforts. The "Bucaneer" of Dana, and the "Curiosity" of Sprague, are works which will be honorably remembered while American literature survives. Hal 1* |