Nineteenth-Century American Poetry Book

INTRODUCTION SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER READING A NOTE ON THE TEXTS

JOEL BARLOW (1754–1812)
from The Columbiad: Book the Eighth

WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT (1794–1978)
Thanatopsis To a Waterfowl Mutation Hymn to the North Star To a Mosquito A Meditation on Rhode Island Coal The Prairies The Crowded Street Not Yet The Poet The Death of Lincoln

RALPH WALDO EMERSON (1803–1882)
Each and All The Humble-Bee The Snow-Storm Grace Blight Motto to "The Poet"
The World-Soul Mithridates Hamatreya Ode, Inscribed to W.H. Channing Merlin I Motto to "Nature"
Days The Chartist's Complaint Two Rivers Motto to "Illusions"
Terminus

HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW (1807–1882)
Mezzo Cammin The Warning The Day Is Done Dante Sand of the Desert in an Hour-Glass The Fire of Drift-Wood The Jewish Cemetery at Newport The Ropewalk The Golden Mile-Stone
from Hiawatha: The White Man's Foot Snow-Flakes The Legend of Rabbi Ben Levi The Rhyme of Sir Christopher

JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER (1807–1892)
The Cities of the Plain The Farewell Official Piety The Haschish Skipper Ireson's Ride The Palm-Tree Brown of Ossawatomie A Word for the Hour Barbara Frietchie
from Tent on the Beach: [The Dreamer]
Overruled

EDGAR ALLAN POE (1809–1849)
Dreams Sonnet: To Science Romance A Dream within a Dream The City in the Sea To One in Paradise Silence The Sleeper The Conqueror Worm Dreamland Stanzas The Raven A Valentine Ulalume Annabel Lee Eldorado

OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES (1809–1894)
Old Ironsides Our Limitations Latter-Day Warnings The Chambered Nautilus Iris, Her Book Prologue Tartarus

JONES VERY (1813–1880)
The New Birth The Son The Word The Spirit The Serpent The Robe The Winter Rain The Cross The Mountain The Promise The Birds of Passage The Silent The Indian's Retort Slavery The First Atlantic Telegraph The Slowness of Belief in a Spiritual World Forevermore

HENRY DAVID THOREAU (1817–1862)
Sic Vita Brother Where Dost Thou Dwell On Ponkawtasset, Since, We Took Our Way Low-Anchored Cloud Woof of the Sun, Ethereal Gauze My Life Has Been the Poem I Would Have Writ Inspiration For Though the Eaves Were Rabbeted Pray to What Earth Does This Sweet Cold Belong A Winter and Spring Scene

JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL (1819–1891)
A Contrast
from A Fable for Critics
from The Biglow Papers: The Pious Editor's Creed The Darkened Mind Sonnet: On Being Asked for an Autograph in Venice The Boss In a Copy of Omar Khayyam Science and Poetry

WALT WHITMAN (1819–1892)
Song of Myself Crossing Brooklyn Ferry Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking I Saw in Louisiana a Live-Oak Growing Cavalry Crossing a Ford Beat! Beat! Drums!
As I Lay with My Head in Your Lap Camerado Years of the Modern When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd A Noiseless Patient Spider Passage to India Prayer of Columbus To a Locomotive in Winter

HERMAN MELVILLE (1819–1891)
Immolated
from Battle-Pieces The Portent Misgivings The March into Virginia The Temeraire A Utilitarian View of the Monitor's Fight Stonewall Jackson: Mortally Wounded at Chancellorsville Stonewall Jackson: Ascribed to a Virginian The House-Top The College Colonel The Martyr The Apparition Iris
from Clarel
from Part I, canto xiii: The Arch Part II, canto vii: Guide and Guard
from Part II, canto xxiii: By the Jordan
from Part III, canto xx: Afterward
from Part III, canto xxix: Rolfe and the Palm
from Part IV, canto iii: The Island Part IV, canto xxxi: Dirge Part IV, canto xxxiv: Via Crucis Part IV, canto xxxv: Epilogue
from John Marr and Other Sailors Tom Deadlight The Aeolian Harp The Maldive Shark The Berg The Enviable Isles Pebbles
from Timoleon After the Pleasure Party The Night-March Art Herba Santa In a Bye-Canal The Attic Landscape The Parthenon In the Desert
from Weeds and Wildings, Chiefly; with a Rose or Two The Little Good Fellows The Chipmunk Time's Betrayal Rosary Beads Miscellaneous Poems The Rusty Man Camoens Fruit and Flower Painter In Shards the Sylvan Vases Lie To ––
Pontoosuce Billy in the Darbies

FREDERICK GODDARD TUCKERMAN (1821–1873)
Sonnets: First Series Infatuation Rhotruda As Sometimes in a Grove Coralie The Cricket

EMILY DICKINSON (1830–1886)
49. I never lost as much but twice
95. My nosegays are for Captivies––
77. I never hear the word "escape"
89. Some things that fly there be––
135. Water, is taught by thirst
185. "Faith" is a fine invention
211. Come slowly––Eden!
213. Did the Harebell loose her girdle
243. I've known a Heaven, like a Tent–
249. Wild Nights––Wild Nights!
257. Delight is as the flight––
258. There's a certain Slant of light
281. 'Tis so appalling––it exhilarates––
290. Of Bronze––and Blaze––
301. I reason, Earth is short––
307. The One who could repeat the Summer day––
315. He fumbles at your Soul
326. I cannot dance upon my Toes––
328. A Bird came down the Walk––
338. I know that He exists
357. God is a distant––stately Lover––
410. The first Day's Night had come––
414. 'Twas like a Maelstrom, with a notch
435. Much Madness is divinest Sense––
448. This was a Poet––It is That
501. This World is not Conclusion
502. At least––to pray––is left––is left––
506. He touched me, so I live to know
519. 'Twas warm––at first––like Us––
547. I've seen a Dying Eye
556. The Brain, within its Groove
577. If I may have it, when it's dead
599. There is a pain––so utter––
606. The Trees like Tassels––hit––and swung–
612. It would have starved a Gnat––
613. They shut me up in Prose––
622. To know just how He suffered––would be dear––
629. I watched the Moon around the House
632. The Brain––is wider than the Sky––
640. I cannot live with You––
652. A Prison gets to be a friend––
656. The Name––of it––is "Autumn"––
657. I dwell in Possibility––
670. One need not be a Chamber––to be Haunted––
754. My Life had stood––a Loaded Gun––
1053. It was a quiet way––
1712. A Pit––but Heaven over it––
525. I think the Hemlock likes to stand
665. Dropped into the Ether Acre––
709. Publication––is the Auction
771. None can experience stint
812. A Light exists in Spring
824. The Wind begun to rock the Grass
854. Banish Air from Air––
915. Faith––is the Pierless Bridge
925. Struck, was I, not yet by Lightning––
949. Under the Light, yet under
959. A loss of something ever felt I––
997. Crumbling is not an instant's Act
1056. There is a Zone whose even Years
1090. I am afraid to own a Body––
1128. These are the Nights that Beetles love––
1173. The Lightning is a yellow Fork
1235. Like Rain it sounded till it curved
1247. To pile like Thunder to its close
1311. This dirty––little––Heart
1331. Wonder––is not precisely Knowing
1575. The Bat is dun, with wrinkled Wings––
1400. What mystery pervades a well!
1433. How brittle are the Piers
1445. Death is the supple Suitor
1527. Oh give it Motion––deck it sweet
1542. Come show thy Durham Breast
1551. Those––dying then
1670. In Winter in my Room
1718. Drowning is not so pitiful
1751. There comes an hour when begging stops

SARAH MORGAN BRYAN PIATT (1836–1919)
The Palace-Burner A Doubt This World In Her Prison Answering a Child No Help In a Queen's Domain If I Had Made the World Stone for a Statue Army of Occupation A Lesson in a Picture A Pique at Parting Her Word of Reproach Sad Spring-Song

SIDNEY LANIER (1842–1881)
Song for "The Jacquerie"
Nirvana To Beethoven To Richard Wagner The Revenge of Hamish To Bayard Taylor

EDWIN ARLINGTON ROBINSON (1869–1935)
Walt Whitman John Evereldown Luke Havergal Three Quatrains The House on the Hill Aaron Stark Sonnet Verlaine Richard Cory Cliff Klingenhagen Reuben Bright The Tavern Octaves XV, XIX, XX

EXPLANATORY NOTES