Chapter Chapter 3 of Index by Simonds History of American Literature

verse. Her first volume of Moral Pieces appeared in 1815. Emma H. Willard (1787-1870), another Connecticut woman who became famous as an educator, -- she conducted the Troy Female Seminary 1821 to 1838, -- published a volume of poems in 1830, in which was included the well-known song, Rocked in the Cradle of the Deep. George Morris (1802-64), who was the author of many poems of sentiment popular in his day, is now remembered for only one -- Woodman, Spare that Tree. Samuel Woodworth (1785-1842) is likewise remembered as the author of one song -- The Old Oaken Bucket (1826). John Howard Payne (1791-1852), whose name is immortalized because of his Home, Sweet Home, was an actor and writer of plays. He was born in New York and lived a wandering life. His tragedy, Brutus (1818), was his most successful drama. The opera, Clari, the Maid of Milan, in which occurs the famous song, was written in Paris, in 1823, and produced at Covent Garden, London. Payne was United States Consul at Tunis from 1841 until his death. In 1883, his remains were removed to Washington, and there interred. Francis Scott Key (1779-1843) wrote The Star-Spangled Banner in 1814. Key was detained as a prisoner on board a British man-of-war during the bombardment of Fort McHenry; all night he watched the engagement with keenest anxiety, and in the morning wrote the words of his song. It was printed immediately and to the air of Anacreon in Heaven was sung all over the land. Another national anthem, America, was written, in 1832, by Rev. Samuel F. Smith (1808-1905). The name of Washington Allston (1778-1843) should be included in this group, for the most distinguished of our earlier American painters was also a leader in literary culture and the author of numerous graceful poems. James Abraham Hillhouse (1789-1841), of New Haven, was one of the earliest of Americans to attempt the poetic drama on the lines of Byron and Shelley. His Dramas appeared in 1839. Charles Fenno Hoffman (1806-84), founder of the Knickerbocker Magazine in 1833, was the author of light and brilliant verse. His career was closed by insanity in 1849.

N.P. Willis, 1806-67.

In contemporary estimation, at least, no other member of the New York group, during the thirties and forties, quite equalled Nathaniel Parker Willis. He was born in Portland, Maine, was graduated from Yale College in 1827, and served his apprenticeship as a man of letters in Boston. After his removal to New York he was associated with George P. Morris as editor of the New York Mirror. In 1844 he made a place on the Mirror for Poe. It was in that paper that The Raven was published (January, 1845).¹ During his visits to England and the continent, Willis wrote for the Mirror or the Home Journal lively sketches of picturesque scenes and notable people; these were gathered in Pencillings by the Way (1835, 1844) and Loiterings of Travel (1840). He wrote two plays, also, Bianca Visconti (1837) and Tortesa, the Usurer (1839). The Sacred Poems (1843) represent his most worthy accomplishment in verse.