  Edwin Davies Schoonmaker, poet, was born at Scranton, Pennsylvania, February 1, 1873. He removed from Ohio to Kentucky in 1886, and he lived at Lexington almost continuously until 1904. Mr. Schoonmaker was educated at old Kentucky (Transylvania) University; and in 1904 he married a Kentucky woman, who has published a play and a novel. For the last several years he and his wife have lived at Bearsville, New York, high up in the Catskills. Mr. Schoonmaker's first book was a verse play, entitled The Saxons—a Drama of Christianity in the North (Chicago, 1905). This was based upon the attempt on the part of Rome to force the religion of Christ upon the pagans in the forests of the North, and it was a very strong piece of work. His second work, another verse
THE PHILANTHROPIST [From The American Magazine (October, 1912)] I neither praise nor blame thee, aged Scot, In whose wide lap the shifting times have poured The heavy burden of that golden hoard That shines far off and shall not be forgot. I only see thee carving far and wide Thy name on many marbles through the land, Or flashing splendid from the jeweler's hand Where medaled heroes show thy face with pride. Croesus had not such royal halls as thou, Nor Timon half as many friends as crowd Thy porches when thy largesses are loud, Learning and Peace are stars upon thy brow. And still thy roaring mills their tribute bring As unto CÆsar, and thy charities Have borne thy swelling fame beyond the seas, Where thou in many realms art all but king. Yet when night lays her silence on thine ears And thou art at thy window all alone, Pondering thy place, dost thou not hear the groans Of them that bear thy burdens through the years? |
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