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

The Banker-Poet.

At the close of the war, Stedman became a banker and remained a member of the Stock Exchange until 1890. While thus engaged in active business, he nevertheless found leisure to practice the art of letters to good purpose. Some of his poems, like Kearney at Seven Pines,How Old Brown took Harper's Ferry, Wanted -- A Man, and Pan in Wall Street, hold a high place in American literature. Yet Stedman is in no sense a popular poet and not many of his compositions appeal to the public taste. He was not subjective, nor is there much intensity or passion in his verse. His themes were the immediate suggestions of the hour.

The Literary Critic.

Stedman ranks as our ablest critic of poetic literature. He lectured upon Poetry at Johns Hopkins University in 1892, and afterward repeated the selectures at other institutions. It was at this time that he formulated his suggestive definition of poetry -- as "rhythmical, imaginative language, expressing the invention, taste, thought, passion, and insight of the human soul." His critical volumes are: The Victorian Poets (1875), Poets of America (1885), and The Nature and Elements of Poetry (1892). These works are almost indispensable to the literary student. Mr. Stedman published A Victorian Anthology in 1895, and An American Anthology in 1900. In collaboration with G. E. Woodberry he edited The Works of Edgar Allan Poe in 1895, and, with Ellen M. Hutchinson, completed the monumental Library of American Literature (11 volumes), in 1889.

His Death.

At the funeral of his brother-poet, Aldrich, in March, 1907, Stedman was a conspicuous figure, feeble and tottering with the weakness of advancing age. Yet death came upon him suddenly as he sat among his books, at work, January 18, 1908, -- such a death as he had craved in Mors Benefica, --

"Give me to die unwitting of the day
And stricken in Life's brave heat, with senses clear."

Minor Poets of this Generation.

Of the minor poets contemporary with Aldrich and Stedman, the most prominent was Richard Watson Gilder (1844-1909). Classic in taste, he wrote with infallible correctness but lacked the inspiration that gives distinction. In 1870 he became the first editor of Scribner's Monthly, and in 1881 of The Century -- a position which he held until his death. His first volume of verse, The New Day, appeared in 1875. A complete edition of his Poems was published in 1908. Edward Rowland Sill (1841-1887), a native of New England but compelled by ill health to seek a residence in California, a teacher, wrote seriously of life in poems strongly personal, notable for their spiritual insight and lyric power. John Boyle O'Reilly (1844-1890), an Irish patriot with a romantic history, a gifted orator and an influential editor in Boston, was the author of excellent songs and ballads. The lyric gift was shared also by John Banister Tabb (1845-1909), a Catholic priest, professor of English literature in St. Charles College, in Maryland; John Vance Cheney (born in New York in 1848), later a resident of California, whose earlier volumes of verse, Thistle-Drift and Wood Blooms, appeared in 1887 and 1888; and Lloyd Mifflin (born 1846), a Pennsylvanian, who has won distinction through his sonnets, a collected edition of which was published in 1905. Henry Cuyler Bunner (1855-1896), editor of the humorous journal, Puck, was a writer of light and graceful verse in which humor and sentiment are delicately blended. His Airs from Arcady and Elsewhere appeared in 1884.

A Later Group.

Some of the poets, identified with this generation both by date of birth and the spirit of their verse, continue well into the twentieth century. Samuel Minturn Peck (born 1854) and Frank Lebby Stanton (born 1857) are poets of the South; the first a native of Alabama, the second, of South Carolina.