HARRY LYMAN KOOPMAN. R. KOOPMAN, (the name pronounced like Freeport, a ship-building town near Portland, Me., July 1, 1860. He was educated in the public schools of the town and entered Colby University, Waterville, Me., at the age of sixteen and was graduated in 1880. Since that time he has supported himself chiefly with his pen, but in library work rather than in literature. He acquired his training in the Astor Library, New York, and has subsequently been connected with several college libraries. He is at present engaged in preparing a catalogue of the library of George P. Marsh, which is in the possession of the University of Vermont, at Burlington. He began writing verse at the age of fourteen. His first printed poem appeared in December, 1876. He has, however, contributed but rarely to periodicals. His publications in book form are: "The Great Admiral," 1883; "Ellen Statira Koopman; a Tribute to Her Memory," 1885; "Orestes, a Dramatic Sketch, and Other Poems," 1888; and "Woman's Will, a Love-Play in Five Acts, with Other Poems," 1888. The latest product of his pen is entitled " The Sin of the Culprit Fay," and forms an introductory companion-piece to Drake's" Culprit Fay." From the contributions which Mr. Koopman has already made to literature, one is able to forecast to some extent the lines of further work and to judge to some degree of its probable characteristics. It is easily seen that Mr. Koopman has a strong penchant for dramatic verse. The most of his work in this line is as yet, however, more an outline and sketch than fully developed dramatic poetry. The incidents and situations are clear and interesting, but often abrupt and crowded together, demanding development and expansion. Yet Mr. Koopman has the dramatic sense and understands the requirements of a dramatic situation, as is shown in several instances. Mr. Koopman's powers have reached their greatest perfection in lyric verse. The last published work of Mr. Koopman, "Woman's Will," is founded upon a mediæval story which Chaucer retold in the Wife of Bath's Tale." Gower has the same story in his "Confessio Amantis," but the story as dramatized is of a far purer tone and teaches a higher lesson. F. E. D. IN THE KINGDOM OF THE BLIND THE IN the Kingdom of the Blind, But the people have no eyes, Am despised and scorned of men,— DAY-RED. LIGHT, and the fading of night; And death when the light is withdrawn! A glory that feeling can see, A glory that seeing can feel; A gleam of the glory to be, That earth cannot wholly conceal. Light, and the fleeing of night, Light, and the onset of day; But the dark flees not always with light, Nor waits for the night-time alway. CA IRA. HASTE not, halt not; it will go; Flinch not; faint not; time will tell; |