POETS OF AMERICA. IT CHAPTER I. EARLY AND RECENT CONDITIONS. I. thor's pur pose. T is my design to trace the current of poesy, deep- The auening and widening in common with our streams of riches, knowledge, and power; to show an influence upon the national sentiment no less potent, if less obvious, than that derived from the historic records of our past; to watch the first dawning upon an eager people of "the happy, heavenly vision men call Art"; to observe closely and to set down with an honest hand our foremost illustrations of the Rise of Poetry in America. Such is my purpose, and I deem it not a mean one. We think of power and wealth as things in themselves, but they are strong and rich only in their relations to the life of man. The essential part of that life is in his spirit, of which imagination is the king, and the sister arts, with poetry at their front, are to be accounted its highest forms of expression. The song of a nation is accepted as an ultimate test National of the popular spirit; as the earliest form of speech song. and the ripest, whether the utterance of feelings common to all, or of the fine and daring speculations of the noblest minds. Examine it, and form opinions of the country's general literature, of the hold upon art and action and scientific achievement. If we have |