SEBA SMITH. [Born, 1792.] was married to ELIZABETH OAKES PRINCE, who has since been one of the most conspicuous literary women of this country. In 1842 they removed to New York, where Mr. SMITH has published “Letters of Major Jack Downing," "Powhattan, a Met SEBA SMITH was born in Buckfield, Maine, on the fourteenth of September, 1792; graduated at Bowdoin College in 1818; and having studied the law, settled in Portland, where his literary tastes led him to a connection with the press, and he edited successively the "Eastern Argus," and the "Port-rical Romance," "Way Down East, or Portraitures land Courier." It was during his residence in Portland that he originated the popular and natural character of "Major Downing," which has served more frequently and successfully than any other for the illustration of New England peculiarites, in speech and manners. When about thirty years of age, he All were sunk in soft repose Of the horrors of the wreck, To the mother, or the child, or the sire; A shriek of "fire!" Now the flames are spreading fast- And are flickering to the sky; Now the deck is all a blaze; now the rails- No one heard the cry of wo But the sea-bird that flew by; There was hurrying to and fro, But no hand to save was nigh; Still before the burning foe they were driven- Some leap over in the flood To the death that waits them there; Others quench the flames with blood, 164 of Yankee Life," "New Elements of Geometry," &c. One of his earliest attempts in verse was "An Auction Extraordinary," frequently quoted as LUCRETIA MARIA DAVIDSON's. Among his minor poems several are dramatic and picturesque, and noticeable for unusual force of description. Some, a moment to escape from the grave, From his briny ocean-bed, When the morning sun awoke, And a sable cloud of smoke THE SNOW STORM. THE cold winds swept the mountain's height, A mother wander'd with her child: And darker hours of night came on, Her limbs were chill'd, her strength was gone: And smiled to think her babe was warm. N. L. FROTHINGHAM. [Born, 1793.] THE Reverend NATHANIEL LANGDON FROTHINGHAM, D.D., was born in Boston in the summer of 1793, and was graduated at Cambridge in the class of 1811. While a student there he pronounced the poem at the installation of Dr. KIRKLAND as president of the university, but his first printed verses of any considerable extent were the "Poem delivered before the Phi Beta Kappa Society" in 1813, which appeared in Mr. ANDREWS NORTON'S "General Repository." The year before this he became an instructor in rhetorie and oratory in the college, an office which he was the first to hold, and in which he was succeeded by his friend J. M. WAINWRIGHT, afterwards bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church in New York. He remained in it till the spring of 1815, when he was ordained as pastor of the First Congregational Church in Boston. In this pastorate he continued until ill-health compelled him to resign it, at the same point of the year, in 1850. Dr. FROTHINGHAM has been many years a contributor to the "Christian Examiner," and, less frequently, to some other periodicals. In 1845 he published "Deism or Christianity" in four TO THE OLD FAMILY CLOCK, SET UP IN A NEW PLACE. discourses; in 1852 "Sermons, in the order of a Twelvemonth;" and in other years, about fifty sermons and addresses of various kinds. In 1855 ho has gratified his friends, and enriched our literature by printing a collection of his poems, under the title of "Metrical Pieces, Translated and Original." A singular grace of expression and refinement of sentiment pervade the prose writings of Dr. FROTHINGHAM, and his poetry is also marked by exquisite finish and tasteful elegance. His works are among the best models of composition which contemporary New England scholars will present to posterity. The longest of his poems is a masterly version of "The Phenomena or Appearances of the Stars," from the Greek of ARATUS. His translations from the German have been very highly esteemed by the most competent critics for fidelity to their first authors, and as English poems. He has exhibited what the Germans accomplished in their own language and what they would have done in ours. His independent productions in verse are what might have been expected from a mind in contemplation and action subordinated so instinctively and sedulously to the laws of beauty. Of homely duties and of plain delights, Whose love and mirth and sadness sat before thee;- OLD things are come to honor. Well they might, Sunk and forgotten, and their forms but dust. If old like thee, thou reverend monitor! My mother's childish wonder gazed as mine did Thou, for their sake, stand honored there awhile, Honored wherever standing,-ne'er to leave The house that calls me master. When there's none I thus bequeath thee as in trust to those [such, Who shall bear up my name. For each that hears The music of thy bell, strike on the hours; Duties between, and heaven's great hope beyond them! TO A DEAD TREE, WITH A VINE TRAINED OVER IT. THE dead tree bears; each dried-up bough And wears a living drapery now The worthless stock a use has found, So round that Grecian mystic rod In thee a holier sign I view Than in Hebrew rods of power; Whether they to a serpent grew, Or budded into flower. This Vine, but for thy mournful prop, And mantle thy decay. O thou, my soul, thus train thy thought By Sorrow's barren aid! Deck with the charms that Faith has brought The blights that Time has made. On all that is remediless Still hang thy gentle vails; The sharp, bare points of mortal lot STRENGTH: TO AN INVALID. "WHEN I am weak, I'm strong," The strength that did not to the earth belong And flung its victory o'er the ills that throng Round Age, and Want, and Pain. "When I am weak, I'm strong," Each Christian heart repeats; She comes again-the peaceful one-though less Yet then a place she finds, And all beneath the sultry calm lies hush;— These words will tune its feeblest breath to song, Till o'er the chafed and darkening ocean rush And fire its languid beats. O Holy Strength! whose ground Is in the heavenly land; And whose supporting help alone is found In God's immortal hand! O blessed! that appears When fleshly aids are spent; The squally August winds. Behold her yet once more, And O how beautiful! Late in the wane When the leaves thin and pale- And girds the mind when most it faints and fears, Or, noisy in their crisp decay, e'en now With trust and sweet content! It bids us cast aside All thoughts of lesser powers ;— Give up all hopes from changing time and tide, And all vain will of ours. We have but to confess That there's but one retreat; And meekly lay each need and each distress Down at the Sovereign feet;- Of all we hoped to do; And sunken Nature triumphs in the Grace That bears us up and through. A better glow than health Flushes the cheek and brow, Roll to the sharpening gale; In smoky lustre clad, Its warm breath flowing in a parting hymn, So with the Year of Life. An Ordering Goodness helps its youth and age, And gives it truce in strife. The Heavenly Providence, With varying methods, but a steady hold, For human soul and sense. The Father that's above, Remits, assuages; still abating one The house is stout with store of nameless wealth;- Of all the stripes due to the ill that's done, We can do all things now. No less sufficience seek; All counsel less is wrong; [weak; The whole world's force is poor, and mean, "When I am weak, I'm strong." and In his compassionate love. Help Thou our wayward mind HENRY ROWE SCHOOLCRAFT. [Born, 1793.] THE family name of this learned and voluminous author, he informs us in his "Personal Memoirs," was CALCRAFT. The change of the initial syllable was induced by the occupation of his father as a teacher, the usage of the neighborhood being tacitly adopted in the household. He was born in Guilderland, near Albany, on the twentyeighth of March, 1793. His chief works are a "Treatise on Vitreology," 1817; "View of the Lead Mines of Missouri," 1819; "Journal of a Tour into the Interior of Missouri and Arkansas," 1820; Narrative of an Expedition to the Head Waters of the Mississippi," 1821; "Travels in the Central Portions of the Mississippi Valley," 1822; "An Expedition to Itasca Lake," 1834; "Algic Researches, comprising Inquiries respecting the Mental Characteristics of the North American Indians," 1839; "Oneota, or Characteristics of the Red Race of America," 1844; "Notes on the Iroquois," 1846; "Personal Memoirs of a Residence of Thirty Years with the Indian Tribes," 1851; FROM THE WHITE FISH." Or venison let GOLDSMITH SO wittily sing, A very fine haunch is a very fine thing; And BURNS, in his tuneful and exquisite way, The charms of a smoking Scot's haggis display; But 't is often much harder to eat than descant, And a poet may praise what a poet may want. Less question shall be with my muse of my dish, Whilst her power I invoke in the praise of white fish: So fine on a platter, so tempting a fry, So rich in a broil, and so sweet in a pie, That even before it the red trout must fail, And that mighty bonne bouche of the land, beaver tail! Its beauty and flavor no person can doubt, If seen in the water, or tasted without; And all the dispute that an epicure makes, Of this king of lake fishes, this deer of the lakes, Regards not its choiceness, to ponder or sup, But the best mode of dressing and serving it up. Now this is a point where good livers may differ, As tastes become fixed, or opinions are stiffer..... The merchant, the lawyer, the cit, and the beau, The proud and gustative, the poor and the low, The gay habitant, the inquisitive tourist, The chemic physician, the dinner crost juristTo these it is often a casual sweet, As they dine by appointment, or taste as a treat; Not so, or as mental or physical joy, Comes the sight of this fish to the courier de bois; That wild troubadour with his joy-loving crew, Who sings as he paddles his birchen canoe, And thinks all the hardships that fall to his lot, Are richly made up at the platter and pot. 167 "Scenes and Adventures in the Ozark Mountains," 1853; and "Information respecting the History, Condition, and Prospects, of the Indian Tribes of the United States," in five quarto volumes, published by the government. ences. The poetical compositions of Dr. SCHOOLCRAFT are numerous, frequently ingenious, and have all about them a pleasing air of genuineness. Living many years in remote solitudes, he had "no resort to pass away his time" but the cultivation of his natural taste for verse, and he wisely selected his themes from his own fresh and peculiar experiBesides contributions to literary journals, during nearly half a century, he has published, "Transallegania, a Poem," 1820; The Rise of the West, or a Prospect of the Mississippi Valley," 1830; "The Man of Bronze, a Poem on the Indian Character, in Six Books," read before the Algic Society, at Detroit, 1833; "Alhalla, or the Lord of Talladega, a Tale of the Creek War," 1843; and "Helderbergia," in four cantos, 1855. 66 To him there's a charm neither feeble nor vague .... The muse might appeal to the science of books To picture its ichthyological looks, Show what is its family likeness or odds, Compared with its cousins, the salmons and cods; Tell where it approximates, point where it fails, By counting its fins, or dissecting its scales; Or dwell on its habits, migrations, and changesThe modes of its capture, its cycles and ranges: But let me forbear 't is the fault of a song, A tale, or a book, if too learned or long. Thus ends my discussion. More would you, I pray, Ask MITCHELL, or HARLAN, LESIEUR, or DE KAY. FROM LIKES AND DISLIKES." WHATE'ER is false, impertinent or dull, Wit's cast off robes, and learning's worn out things; A name given the white fish by the Canadians. Who crowds the jest — half hitting and half hit I hate that ever busy, bustling man, Or e'en his own - a point not understood I hate the sly, insiduous, smirking "friend," GEEHALE: AN INDIAN LAMENT. THE blackbird is singing on Michigan's shore And reflects o'er the mountains as beamy a light As it ever reflected, or ever express'd, [the best. Each bird and each beast, it is bless'd in degree: I will go to my tent, and lie down in despair; This snake-skin, that once I so sacredly wore, I shall wash from my face every cloud-colored stain, snows; His blood can, alone, give my spirit repose. They came to my cabin when heaven was black; I heard not their coming, I knew not their track; But I saw, by the light of their blazing fusees, They were people engender'd beyond the big seas: My wife and my children,-O, spare me the tale! For who is there left that is kin to GEEHALE! THE BIRCHEN CANOE. In the region of lakes, where the blue waters sleep, Like a pattern of wicker-work rare; As a basket suspended in air. [bound Leen ata nee saugein.† The heavens in their brightness and glory below, Seemed rushing a contrary way; My bark raised a murmur aloud, With the landscape in smiling array, Thus tranquil and sweetly away. I will raise up my voice to the source of the light; And I gazed on the waters, and then on the light, I will dream on the wings of the bluebird at night; I will speak to the spirits that whisper in leaves, Till my vision could bear no more. My Betula papyracæ. + You only I love. |