Chapter Poetry, South and North of Index by Simonds History of American Literature

John James Piatt (1835-1917), born in Indiana, and his wife, Sarah M. Piatt (1836- ) became residents of Ohio. Mr. Piatt was associated with William Dean Howells in the publication of Poems of Two Friends (1860). Numerous volumes of his verse have since appeared, two of them in association with his wife. Mrs. Piatt's Complete Poems (two volumes) were published in 1894.

Joaquin Miller (1841-1913), another son of Indiana, whose name before the poet changed it was Cincinnatus Heine Miller, removed with his parents to Oregon and afterward to California. His first volume, Songs of the Sierras (1871) was published in London while the author was a visitor in England. Miller's lyrical romances have not maintained their original popularity, but the fine stanzas of his Columbus may find a place among the unforgetable poems of our literature.

J. Maurice Thompson (1844-1901), a literary critic and author of several popular romances, also deserves recognition as a lyric poet. A disciple of Theocritus, he was an enthusiast for nature, a lover of outdoor life and sports. He revived interest in archery, and sang of birds and woods. Thompson was born in Indiana, but lived as a boy in Kentucky and Georgia. He served in the Confederate army during the war, and at its close returned to his native state.

Will Carleton (1845-1912), born in Michigan, became a journalist, and acquired prodigious fame in the seventies with his ballads "Betsy and I Are Out," "Over the Hills to the Poor House," and many others. His appeal was entirely to the sentiments and emotions of the common people. Farm Ballads (1873) was followed by numerous volumes of verse, humorous and pathetic, often in dialect.

Another poet whose field has been that of sentiment and whose popularity was widely established was Ella Wheeler Wilcox (1855-1919), a native of Wisconsin. Her Poems of Passion (1883) first drew attention to her work. The verse of Carleton and that of Mrs. Wilcox received extended circulation through the newspaper press; both writers were journalists.

Eugene Field (1850-1895), for a number of years a journalist in Chicago, will long be remembered, not only for the whimsical humor of his prose, but for the tender pathos of a few poems of child life, like Little Boy Blue and Wynken, Blynken and Nod. Field was a lover of the Latin poet Horace, and the author of some happy versions of his odes. A Little Book of Western Verse (1890), With Trumpet and Drum (1892), and A Second Book of Verse (1893) contain his familiar poems.

Widely known as a writer of poems in the homely dialect of the Indiana farmer, James Whitcomb Riley (1853-1916) attained a popularity second to that of none of his contemporaries. Filled with a genial optimism, a universal sympathy, and a kindly sense of humor, Mr. Riley's verse has won the hearts of the people. His nature lyrics are vivid with rural charm and the simple joys of country life. He has written many songs for children which have long since become classics among child readers. Mr. Riley was born in Greenfield, Indiana. In 1873, he began newspaper work in Indianapolis, his home thereafter, contributing occasional poems in dialect to Indiana papers, using the pen-name "Benj. F. Johnson, of Boone." He soon became known as "the Hoosier Poet." The Old Swimmin' Hole and 'Leven More Poems was published in 1883, and numerous collections have since followed. Among his bestknown poems are: Griggsby's Station, Knee-Deep in June, An Old Sweetheart of Mine, Old Aunt Mary's, Little Orphant Annie, When the Frost is on the Punkin, The Old Swimmin' Hole, Thoughts for the Discouraged Farmer -- with its cheery strain, --

"Fer the world is full of roses, and the roses full of dew,
And the dew is full of heavenly love that drips fer me and you,"--

and many others, so marked by homely sense and a democratic simplicity of style that their humanness has commended them to readers of all ranks.