ST. JOHN'S EVE. THE veil is thin between The seen and the unseenThinner to night than the transparent air; All heaven and earth are still, Save when from some far hill Floateth the nightbird's unavailing prayer; Up from the mountain bars Climb the slow, patient stars. Only to faint in moonlight white and rare! Ere earth had grown too wise On this midsummer night the men of old Believed that they could hear Voices long silent speaking from the mold, Believed whoever slept Unearthly vigil kept Where his own death knell should at last be tolled. In solemn midnight marches They fancied that their hungry souls found God; Stole softly through the night, Leaving no impress on the yielding sod, And bore to mortal ears Tidings from other spheres, The undiscovered way no man hath trod. Ah! what if it were true? Then would I call ye who Have one by one beyond my vision flown; I would set wide the door Ye enter now no more Crying, "Come in from out the void unknown! Come as ye came of old Laden with love untold' Hark! was that nothing but the night wind's moan? JULIA C. R. DORR. -Independent, June 25, 1891. THEODORE DE BANVILLE. BALLADE FOR THE FUNERAL OF THE LAST OF THE JOYOUS POETS. ONE ballade more before we say goodnight, O dying Muse, one mournful ballade more; Then let the new men fall to their delight, The Impressionist, the Decadent, a score Of other fresh fanatics, who adore Quaint demons, and disdain this golden shrine; Has fallen, and fallen the ancient glorious line; And fell Psychology, forbear to pour Verse, like an ichor in a chrysolite, Secret, yet splendid, and the world foreswore, One breathing-space the mocking mask it wore. Then failed, then fell those children of the vine,— Sons of the sun,—and sank in slow decline; Pulse after pulse their radiant lives were shed; To silence we their crystal names consign; The last is gone, since Banville too is dead. ENVOI. PRINCE-JEWELER, whose facet-rhymes combine TO THE WINDS OF JUNE. BLOW gently, Winds of June! Each downy nest Blow gently, Winds of June! The bud is here So easily the song drops out of tune, So eagerly the sun absorbs the dews, So quickly does the rose its petals lose, That, for their sakes, blow gently, Winds of June! MARY A. MASON. -St. Nicholas, June, 1891. A Book of IBID. The Children Out-of-Doors. Verse by Two in One House. Cincinnati: Robert Clarke & Co., 1885. 16mo, pp. 88. IBID. In Primrose Time. A New Irish Garland. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1886. 16m0, pp. 70. IBID. A Voyage to the Fortunate Isles, and Other Poems. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1886. 16m0, pp. x and 205. IBID. The Witch in the Glass, etc. Second edition. London: Elliot Stock, 1890. 16m0, pp. 102. MITCHELL, S. WEIR, M. D. The Hill of Stones and Other Poems. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1883. 16m0, pp. 98. IBID. A Masque and Other Poems. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1887. 8vo, pp. 63. IBID. The Cup of Youth and Other Poems. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1889. pp. 78. 8vo, IBID. A Psalm of Deaths and Other Poems. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1890. Svo, pp. 70. PIATT, J. J. Western Windows and Other Poems. New York: Hurd & Houghton, 1869. 16mo, pp. 231. IBID. Landmarks and Other Poems. Cambridge: Hurd & Houghton, 1872. 16m0, pp. 116. IBID. Western Windows and Other Poems. Boston: James R. Osgood & Co., 1877. 16m0, pp. 231. IBID. Poems of House and Home. Boston: James R. Osgood & Co., 1879. 16m0, pp. 129. IBID. The Children Out-of-Doors. A Book of Verse by Two in One House. Cincinnati: Robert Clarke & Co., 1885. 16mo, pp. 88. IBID. At the Holy Well with a Handful of New Verses. Dublin: M. H. Gill & Son, 1887. 12m0, pp. 112. IBID. Idyls and Lyrics of the Ohio Valley. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1888. 16m0, pp. 161. IBID. A Dream of Church Windows, etc. Poems of House and Home. Revised edition. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1888. 16mo, pp. 129. IBID. A Book of Gold, and Other Sonnets. London: Elliot Stock, 1889. 16m0, pp. 50. IBID. At the Holy Well, with a Handful of New Verses. Dublin: M. H. Gill & Son, 1890. 16m0, pp. 112. GOODE, KATE TUCKER. Miscellaneous poems. BARKER, ANNIE E. HUBbart. Miscellaneous poems. GUSTAFSON, ZADEL BARNES. Meg: a Pastoral and Other Poems. Boston: Lee & Shepard, 1879. 16mo, pp. 282. BROWN, REV. THERON. Miscellaneous poems. IVORY, BERTHA MAY. Miscellaneous poems. MUNKITTRICK, RICHARD K. Miscellaneous poems. WASHBURN, DEXTER CARLETON. Songs from the Seasons and Other Verses. St. Johnsbury: Charles T. Walter, 1888. 12mo, pp. 118. FLANDERS, REV. C. P. Miscellaneous poems. OBERHOLTZER, Sara LouISA. Violet Lee, and Other Poems. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co., 1873. 16mo, pp. 143. IBID. Come for Arbutus, and Other Wild Bloom. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co., 1882. 16m0, pp. 147. IBID. Daisies of Verse. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co., 1886. 16m0, pp. 152. STEVENS, MRS. SARAH J. D. Miscellaneous poems. MANVILLE, MARION. Over the Divide, and Other Verses. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co., 1888. 12mo, pp. 190. Bradlee, Rev. CALEB D. A Few Poems. For private distribution. 1880. IBID. A Few Poems. private distribution. 1880. 12mo, pp. 30. Second series. For 12mo, pp. 54. For private dis IBID. Poems. Third series. tribution. 1881. 12mo, pp. 56. IBID. Selections from Poems. For private distribution. IBID. Miscellaneous poems. NOURSE, LAURA A. SUNDERLIN. Pencilings from Immortality. Maquoketa, Iowa: Swigart & Sargent, Printers, 1876. ́ 16m0, pp. 202. IBID. Miscellaneous poems. LEGGETT, BENJAMIN F. A Sheaf of Song. New York: John B. Alden, 1887. 12mo, pp. 154. TALMAN, JOHN. Miscellaneous poems. HARPER, JOHN M. Translations in Verse from Homer and Virgil. Montreal: Dawson Bros., 1888. 16m0, pp. 64. IBID. Miscellaneous poems. BARNES, REV. JOHN W. Miscellaneous poems. EFNOR, LOTTIE CAMERON. Miscellaneous poems. JENKS, EDWARD A. Miscellaneous poems. LOWELL, JAMES RUSSELL. Poetical Works. Complete edition. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1890. 12mo. NOTES. . PIATT, MRS. Mr. George D. Prentice early predicted for Mrs. Piatt a foremost place in the rank of American poets. In a letter to Mrs. Piatt, then Miss Bryan, Mr. Prentice wrote: "I now say emphatically to you again that, if you are entirely true to yourself, and if your life be spared, you will, in the maturity of your powers, be the first poet of your sex in the United States. I say this not as what I think, but what I know." Mrs. Piatt's poems are to be found in every collection of verse. Mr. Whittier in his "Songs of Three Centuries," quotes "The Black Princess," which would induce one to believe the poem to be a favorite with Mr. Whittier. "The Black Princess was a slave woman belonging to Mrs. Piatt's grandmother, and was not only her nurse, but her mother's as well. Mrs. Piatt writes mostly out of doors, which would seem to account for her ready appreciation of, and sympathy with nature. She is as poetic in her personality as in her temperament. Slightly above the medium height, delicate and fragile in appearance, and Her head is singuShe has dark, ten graceful in carriage and figure. larly fine in shape and outline. der hazel eyes, under finely-arched brows, a small, sensitive mouth, straight, well-shaped nose. And as if these endowments were not sufficient, her head is crowned with hair of the real auburn hue, brown in the shadow, golden in the sunlight, and of a silken fineness. One of Mrs. Piatt's most famous poems, "Caprice at Home," can be found on page 108, Vol. I, MAGAZINE OF POETRY, 1889. PIATT, J. J. Of Mr. Piatt's poems perhaps "The Mower in Ohio" has been most frequently quoted. Of it James Russell Lowell has said: "It has touches of singular beauty and tenderness. . . . In his general choice of subjects, and mode of treating them, we find a native sweetness and humanity, a domesticity of sentiment, that is very attractive." Mr. Piatt's muse seems to find in the farm and prairie a wide range for expression. Like his gifted wife he is a poet of nature. GOODE. "In Memory of John Howard Payne" has been widely copied. It is not, however, a special favorite with Miss Goode. It was first published under the nom de plume of "Kitty Clover." IBID. "I Want You So," was written to her. sister, Marion Goode, after her marriage in November, 1885. IBID. "The Songs My Mother Used to Sing" is a favorite with Miss Goode, but in the opinion of her friends it is far from being her best, and in deference to their wishes was withheld. In a letter to the editor Miss Goode says: "You will readily see that I make no claim to profundity. I choose the simple themes within reach of my pen, and my taste is for the lyrical in verse. In other words, I love rhythm and I love rhyme, and my efforts are all in that direction." BARKER. "When the Mists have Rolled Away" was first published in Theodore Tilton's paper, The Golden Age under the title, "We Shall Know." Soon after it was set to music by fifteen or more composers. The authorized copy, and that most generally known and sung, is that of James G. Clark's, sold by W. W. Whitney, Toledo, Ohio. The composition was a favorite one of Mr. Clark's, and has been sung by him hundreds of times on his tours through the country, singing for temperance and other convocations. Sung in Mr. Clark's own inimitable way, with the peculiar tenderness of expression of which he alone is capable, it has been received with great enthusiasm by his audiences. The poem has also been translated into other languages, and may be called one of the GUSTAFSON. "Zlobane" was first published by Harper's and afterwards quoted by Mr. Epes Sargent in his "Cyclopædia of British and American Poetry." "Zlobane is the name of the mountain which was taken by storm from the Zulus by the British forces on the morning of the 28th of March, 1879. On the top of this mountain the victorious English troops, who had unsaddled their horses and cast themselves down to rest, were surprised and surrounded by the Zulus. Of the British corps only one captain and six men escaped. This ballad relates an incident of the day." E. S. IBID. "A Ditty of Dolldom," from which we have given extracts, can be found in Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, January 3, 1891. OBERHOLTZER. "A Burial Ode" was composed for and sung as part of the funeral services of Bayard Taylor, at Longwood Cemetery, March 15, 1879. It was set to music by J. R. Sweeney, M. B. BROWNING. "Mother and Poet." This was Laura Savio, of Turin, a poetess and patriot, whose sons were killed at Ancona and Gaeta. Miss Mercedes Leigh, of Washington, D. C., recited the poem at a drawing-room in London to which the Prince and Princess of Wales were present. They were much pleased with Miss Leigh's artistic rendering, and not long after she was invited to give the recitation before the Queen. SIMS. "Ostler Joe" gained great notoriety through Mrs. James Brown Potter. Mrs. Potter had been invited by some ladies at Washington to give a reading. She chose for her recitation George R. Sims' "'Ostler Joe," which so shocked some of the ladies present that they retired from the room. This action on their part caused general comment not only in society but by the press. It is needless to say that public sentiment was with Mrs. Potter. Mr. Sims is an English playwright and story writer of more than average ability. His plays have yielded him an immense income. It is said he possesses the peculiar faculty of being able to keep two or three serial stories going at the same time, changing from one to another for rest. MOORE. "A Visit from St. Nicholas." These lines are about the only ones of Mr. Moore's that have ever received much notice, although he published a volume of poems in 1844. He was a professor in the Protestant Episcopal Seminary, New York. He was born in New York in 1779, and died in Newport, R. I., in 1863. ALLEN. "Rock me to Sleep." "Mrs. Allen sent this poem from Italy (she was then Mrs. Paul Akers) to the Saturday Evening Gazette in 1860. When it had become popular, several claimants to its authorship arose, and a fierce dispute ensued, one claimant hiring a whole page of a New York daily in which to set forth his proofs. Mrs. Akers' volume contains better, though less popular poems than this." R. J. Later the poem was set to music. BYRD. "My Mind to me a Kingdom is." William Byrd (born in 1540, died in 1623) was organist to Queen Elizabeth, and composed an immense amount of vocal music. Three or four other stanzas, inferior to these, are sometimes inserted in this poem, and its authorship has been claimed for Sir Edward Dyer, a contemporary of Byrd's. There are also four stanzas of precisely similar construction, having many of the same thoughts, and in some cases almost identical words, which are attributed to Joshua Sylvester." R. J. |