INTRODUCTION

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The poetry relating to American history falls naturally into two classes: that written, so to speak, from the inside, on the spot, and that written from the outside, long afterwards. Of the first class, "The Star-Spangled Banner" is the most famous example, as well as perhaps the best. Even at this distant day, reading it with a knowledge of the circumstances which produced it, it has a power of touching the heart and gripping the imagination which goes far toward proving the genuineness of its art. Of the second class, "Paul Revere's Ride" is probably the most widely known, though Mr. Longfellow's own "Ballad of the French Fleet" is a better poem.

It is evident that, in compiling an anthology such as this, different standards must be used in judging these two classes. The first, aside from any quality as poetry which it may have, is of value because of its historical or political interest, because it is an expression and an interpretation of the hour which gave it birth. With it, poetic merit is not the first consideration, which is, perhaps, as well. Yet, however slight their merit as poetry may be, many of the early ballads possess an admirable energy, directness, and aptness of phrase, and there is about them a childlike simplicity impossible of reproduction in this sophisticated age—as where Stephen Tilden, in his epitaph on Braddock, requests the great commanders who have preceded that unfortunate soldier to the grave to

"Edge close and give him room."

With the retrospective ballad, on the other hand, poetic merit is a sine qua non. It has little value historically, however accurate its facts. It differs from the contemporary ballad in the same way that the "New Canterbury Tales" differ from Froissart; or as the "Idylls of the King" differ from "Le Morte Arthur." It is less authentic, less convincing, less vital. It may have atmosphere, but there is no infallible way of telling whether the atmosphere is right. Unless it is something more, then, than mere metrical history, the modern ballad has little claim to consideration.

These are the two principles which the present compiler has had constantly in mind. Yet the second principle has been violated more than once, since, in a collection such as this, one must cut one's coat according to the cloth; or, rather, one must make sure that one is decently covered, though the covering may here and there be somewhat inferior in quality. So it has been necessary, in order to keep the thread of history unbroken, to admit some strands anything but silken; and if the choice has sometimes been of ills, rather than of goods, the compiler can only hope that he chose wisely.

The most difficult and trying portion of his task has been, not to get his material together, but to compress it into reasonable limits. Especially in the colonial period was the temptation great to include more early American verse. Peter Folger's "A Looking-Glass for the Times," Benjamin Tompson's "New England's Crisis," Michael Wigglesworth's "God's Controversy with New England," the "Sot-Weed Factor," and many others, which it is recalling an old sorrow to name here, were excluded only after long and bitter debate. No doubt other exclusions will be noticed by nearly every reader of the volume—and it may interest him to know that the material gathered together would have made four such books as this.

The thread of narrative upon which the poems have been strung together has been made as slight as possible, just strong enough to carry the reader understandingly from one poem to the next. The notes, too, have been limited to the explanation of such allusions as are not likely to be found in the ordinary works of reference, with here and there an account of the circumstances which caused the lines to be written, or an indication of source, where the source is unusual. Every available source has been drawn upon—the works of all the better known and many of the minor American and English poets, anthologies, newspaper collections, magazines, collections of Americana and especially of broadsides—in a word, American and English poetry generally.

In this connection, the compiler wishes to make grateful acknowledgment of the assistance he has received on every hand, especially from Mr. Herbert Putnam and Miss Margaret McGuffey, of the Library of Congress; Mr. N. D. C. Hodges, librarian of the Cincinnati, Ohio, Public Library; Mr. C. B. Galbreath, librarian of the Ohio State Library; Mr. Charles F. Lummis, librarian of the Los Angeles, California, Public Library; Dr. Edward Everett Hale, Mr. William Henry Venable, Mr. Isaac R. Pennypacker, Mr. Arthur Guiterman, and Mr. Wallace Rice. He might add that it is a matter of deep personal gratification to him that in no instance has any author refused to permit the use of his work in this collection. On the contrary, many of them have been most helpful in suggestions.

A special effort has been made to secure accuracy of text,—no light task, especially with the early ballads. Where the text varied, as was often the case, that has been followed which seemed to have the greater authority, except that obvious misprints have been corrected. In this, the compiler has had the coÖperation of The Riverside Press, and has had frequent occasion to admire the care and knowledge of the corrector and his assistants.

B. E. S.

Chillicothe, Ohio, July 23, 1908.


TABLE OF CONTENTS

gn="left">A New Song, Unknown
137
How we became a Nation, Harriet Prescott Spofford 138
A Proclamation, Unknown 138
The Blasted Herb, Mesech Weare 139
Epigram, Unknown 140
The Daughter's Rebellion, Francis Hopkinson 140
On the Snake depicted at the Head of Some American Newspapers, Unknown 140
Free America, Joseph Warren 140
Liberty Tree, Thomas Paine 141
The Mother Country, Benjamin Franklin 142
Pennsylvania Song, Unknown 142
Maryland Resolves, Unknown 142
Massachusetts Song of Liberty, Mercy Warren 143
Epigram, Unknown 144
To the Boston Women, Unknown 144
Prophecy, Gulian Verplanck 144
CHAPTER II
The Bursting of the Storm
Paul Revere's Ride, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 144
What's in a Name, Helen F. More 146
Lexington, Sidney Lanier 146
Lexington, Oliver Wendell Holmes 147
New England's Chevy Chase, Edward Everett Hale 148
The King's Own Regulars, Unknown 150
Morgan Stanwood, Hiram Rich 151
The Minute-Men of Northboro, Wallace Rice 152
Lexington, John Greenleaf Whittier 153
The Rising, Thomas Buchanan Read 154
The Prize of the Margaretta, Will Carleton 155
The Mecklenburg Declaration, William C. Elam 156
A Song, Unknown 157
CHAPTER III
The Colonists take the Offensive
The Green Mountain Boys, William Cullen Bryant 157
The Surprise at Ticonderoga, Mary A. P. Stansbury 157
The Yankee's Return from Camp, Edward Bangs 159
Tom Gage's Proclamation, Unknown 160
The Eve of Bunker Hill, Clinton Scollard 161
Warren's Address to the American Soldiers, John Pierpont 161
The Ballad of Bunker Hill, Edward Everett Hale 162
Bunker Hill, George H. Calvert 162
The Battle of the Cowpens, Thomas Dunn English 252
The Battle of Eutaw, William Gilmore Simms 254
Eutaw Springs, Philip Freneau 255
The Dance, Unknown 256
Cornwallis's Surrender, Unknown 256
The Surrender of Cornwallis, Unknown 257
News From Yorktown, Lewis Worthington Smith 257
An Ancient Prophecy, Philip Freneau 258
CHAPTER XI
Peace
On Sir Henry Clinton's Recall, Unknown 259
On the Departure of the British from Charleston, Philip Freneau 260
On the British King's Speech, Philip Freneau 261
England and America in 1782, Alfred Tennyson 262
On Disbanding the Army, David Humphreys 262
Evacuation of New York by the British, Unknown 262
Occasioned by General Washington's Arrival in Philadelphia, on his Way to his Residence in Virginia, Philip Freneau 263
The American Soldier's Hymn, Unknown 264
Thanksgiving Hymn, Unknown 264
Land of the Wilful Gospel, Sidney Lanier 265
PART III
THE PERIOD OF GROWTH
"Oh Mother of a Mighty Race," William Cullen Bryant 268
CHAPTER I
The New Nation
A Radical Song of 1786, St. John Honeywood 269
The Federal Convention, Unknown 269
To the Federal Convention, Timothy Dwight 270
The New Roof, Francis Hopkinson 270
Convention Song, Unknown 271
The Federal Constitution, William Milns 272
The First American Congress, Joel Barlow 273
Washington, James Jeffrey Roche 274
The Vow of Washington, John Greenleaf Whittier 274
On the Death of Benjamin Franklin, Philip Freneau 275
George Washington, John Hall Ingham 275
Washington, Lord Byron 276
Adams and Liberty, Robert Treat Paine 276
Hail Columbia, Joseph Hopkinson 277
Ye Sons of Columbia, Thomas Green Fessenden 278
Truxton's Victory, Unknown 279
The Constellation and the Insurgente, Unknown 280 @47476-h@47476-h-50.htm.html#Page_428" class="pginternal">428
The C. S. A. Commissioners, Unknown Farragut, William Tuckey Meredith 528
Through Fire in Mobile Bay, Unknown 529
The Bay Fight, Henry Howard Brownell 530
"Albemarle" Cushing, James Jeffrey Roche 535
At the Cannon's Mouth, Herman Melville 537
CHAPTER XII
The Martyr President
Lincoln, S. Weir Mitchell 537
O Captain! My Captain! Walt Whitman 537
The Dead President, Edward Rowland Sill 538
Abraham Lincoln, Edmund Clarence Stedman 538
Pardon, Julia Ward Howe 539
The Dear President, John James Piatt 539
Abraham Lincoln, William Cullen Bryant 540
Abraham Lincoln, Richard Henry Stoddard 540
Parricide, Julia Ward Howe 542
Abraham Lincoln, Tom Taylor 543
CHAPTER XIII
Peace
"Stack Arms," Joseph Blynth Alston 545
Jefferson Davis, Walker Meriwether Bell 545
In the Land where we were Dreaming, Daniel B. Lucas 546
Acceptation, Margaret Junkin Preston 547
The Conquered Banner, Abram J. Ryan 547
Peace, Adeline D. T. Whitney 547
Peace, Phoebe Cary 548
A Second Review of the Grand Army, Bret Harte 548
When Johnny comes marching Home, Patrick Sarsfield Gilmore 549
Driving Home the Cows, Kate Putnam Osgood 550
Ode recited at the Harvard Commemoration, James Russell Lowell 550
PART V
THE PERIOD OF EXPANSION
The Eagle's Song, Richard Mansfield 558
CHAPTER I
Reconstruction and After
To the Thirty-Ninth Congress, John Greenleaf Whittier 559
"Mr. Johnson's Policy of Reconstruction," Charles Graham Halpine 559
Thaddeus Stevens, Phoebe Cary 560
South Carolina to the States of the North, Paul Hamilton Hayne 561
Ku-Klux, Madison Cawein 562
The Rear Guard, Irene Fowler Brown 562
The Blue and the Gray, Francis Miles Finch 563
The Stricken South to the North, Paul Hamilton Hayne 564
How Cyrus laid the Cable, n class="smcap">Beyond Wars, David Morton 678
"When there is Peace," Austin Dobson 678
After the War, Richard Le Gallienne 678
NOTES 681
INDEX OF AUTHORS 699
INDEX OF FIRST LINES 705
INDEX OF TITLES 713

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           

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