In the Hospital. Page 299. These lines were long supposed to have been “found under the pillow of a soldier who died at Port Royal, South Carolina." The Petrified Fern. Page 302. resides in Connecticut. Mrs. BRANCA, a native of Brooklyn, Tuloom. Page 303. Mr. ELLSWORTH, who resides in Windsor, Conn., published a volume of poems in 1855, of which this one alone has gained popular favor. It appeared originally in Putnam's Magazine. The Ocean. Page 307. A small volume of Mr. SHEA's poems, edited by his son, the Hon. George Shea, was published in New York in 1846, Mr. SHEA was born in Ireland in 1802, and died in New York in 1815. Spinning-Wheel Song. Page 308. Mr. WALLER, an Irish barrister, was born in 1810. The Burial of Béranger. Page 309. This poem, which appeared about three years before the John Brown song, probably furnishes the original of its popular refrain. It exemplifies the power of musical versification, the striking thought being put somewhat clumsily in the earlier poem, but with perfect rhythm in the later and better known one. The Song of the Western Men. Page 310. Mr. HAWKER, who was Vicar of Morwenstow, in Cornwall, for forty-one years, was born in England in 1804, and died in 1875. He was an eccentric character, and published several little volumes of verse. The interesting story of his life, written by Sabine Baring-Gould, has been re-published in New York. Trelawney was one of the seven bishops that were committed to the Tower in 1688, and the refrain of this poem was a popular catch at the time. The story is told in chapter VIII. of Macaulay's History. Mr. HAWKER slightly altered his poem from time to time; I have preferred to give his first version. Crossing the Rappahannock. Page 314. The incident related in this poem occurred at the battle of Fredericksburg, in December, 1862, when the pontoon bridges were being laid for the National army to cross the river. “The bridges had not spanned more than half the distance when the sun rose and the fog lifted sufficiently to reveal what was going on. A detachment of Mississippi riflemen had been posted in cellars, behind stone walls, and at every point where a man could be sheltered on the south bank; and now the incessant crack of their weapons was heard, picking off the men that were laying the bridges. The losses were so serious that it was impossible to continue the work. .... At last, General Hunt suggested a solution of the difficulty. Four regiments that volunteered for the service-the 7th Michigan, the 19th and 20th Massachusetts, and the 89th New York-crossed the river in pontoon boats, under the fire of the sharpshooters, landed quickly, and drove them out of their fastness, capturing a hundred of them, while the remainder escaped to the hills. Roll-Call. Page 316. Mr. SHEPHERD was a New York journalist. Heroes. Page 317. This poem was contributed by Miss PROCTOR to the publication of a sanitary fair during the last year of the War of the Rebellion. Moonlight. Page 318. Mr. WEEKS, born in New York in 1840, was a graduate of Yale College, and died in 1876. Three volumes of his poems were published, in 1866-'76. They contain much fine work, but the piece here given has surpassed all the others in popularity. The Song of Rorek. Page 319. This poem appeared originally in the Atlantic Monthly. Its author, a business man of New York, published a small volume of original poems and translations in 1864, under the pen-name of John W. MONTCLAIR. Easter. Page 328. Dr. CUTTING, who was born in Windsor, Vt., in 1813, and died in Brooklyn, N. Y., in 1882, wrote many fugitive poems, which have never been collected. If I Should Die To-Night. Page 329. This poem, originally published in The Christian Union in June, 1873, was brought into special prominence when H. Rider Haggard inserted a large portion of it, without credit, in his novel entitled “Jess" (1887), where it is supposed to be written by the heroine and addressed to the hero, the necessary changes for that purpose being made. The lines have been attributed to Henry Ward Beecher and to others, but the evidence leaves no reasonable doubt that Miss Smith, of Tabor College, Iowa, is their author. Cuddle Doon. Page 331. The author of this piece is a Scottish work. ing-man, whose poems have been published in a small volume. Light. Page 333. Mr. BOURDILLON is an Englishman, born in 1852. What My Lover Said. Page 333. This poem has been attributed to Horace Greeley from the accident that the writer's initials, corresponding to his, were signed to it on its first appearance in the New York Evening Post. Some controversy has arisen over the authorship, one newspaper correspondent asserting with great positiveness that the lines were written by Richard Realf; but they bear no marks of Realf's hand. Mr. GREENE is a lawyer of Honesdale, Pa., whose name is known in magazine literature. What Does It Matter? Page 335. Mr. BARKER, being elected to the Maine legislature, received a circular requesting material for a biographical sketch, and wrote this poem in reply. The Last Redoubt. Page 336. Mr. AUSTIN, an English journalist, born in 1835, has published three novels, several tragedies, and two or three small volumes of poems, of which this one alone seems to have caught the popular ear, INDEX OF FIRST LINES. Accept, thou shrine of my dead saint PAGE 19 56 76 Backward, turn backward, O Time, in your flight 224 52 291 333 Come a little nearer, Doctor,—thank you !-let me · Corporal Green !” the orderly cried 359 234 (6 Dark lowers the night o'er the wide stormy main PAGE 94 England's sun was slowly setting, o'er the bills 253 Fair stood the wind for France 10 Goe, soule, the bodie's guest 2 Hail, beauteous stranger of the grove ! 87 36 85 I am dying, Egypt, dying 217 23 299 |