Item 2: Photocopy of Poem, titled, “From the Carrier of the Visitor to his Patrons,”, no date
Item — Box: 15, Folder: 2
Series VII: Poetry, 1827-1941
From the Series:
Series VII: Poetry, 1827-1941, is arranged chronologically and features a broad range of mid 19th century to mid 20th century works including poems, booklets, and correspondence of various themes covering the difficult nature of military battles, religious faith, and romance. A main portion of the series highlights poetry and ballads focusing on the natural beauty of the American landscape and contrasting this with the nation's violent past. Featured authors in this series include Fitz-Greene Halleck, an American poet who worked as the personal secretary and advisor to John Jacob Aster, and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, one of the most proficient American poets of the 19th century. Halleck and Longfellow's poems cover religious themes that explore the role that faith plays in determination, its relationship to the land, and how it impacts younger generations. William Henry Furness, American poet who was described by his peers as a theologian, transcendentalist, and an abolitionist, is another author in the collection that explores these religious themes without the nationalistic perspective. Finally, the largest outlier of this series is the romantic poem written by a British Major John Andre who was a major in the British Army and head of its Secret Service in America during the American Revolutionary War. Andre’s poem, The Frantick Lover, is included in a larger booklet with an introduction by Howard H. Peckham, historian and an authority on colonial and early American history, who provides background and historical context on the Major and the development of the poem. Central themes of this work include the destructive effect that feelings of jealousy and obsession can have especially when disguised as feelings of love. This work provides an interesting comparison to the other American poets within the collection.
Dates
- Created: no date
Disclaimer for Name and Subject Authorities
Some of the name and subject authority tags have been assigned by educated guessing and estimation of persons and subjects by region, age, profession, and familial relationships. They have been thoroughly researched by using primary and secondary sources available digitally, and named in each description, or in some cases linked directly to the person tag.
Access:
All series and subseries within this collection are open for research, with the exception of a few files within the Academia series that are restricted. The Academia series contains financial and sensitive institutional records from Wilkes College, and financial report records from Princeton University that will remain restricted for 80 years upon creation.
Extent
1 items
Language of Materials
From the Collection: English
Type of Material:
Poem
Condition:
Fair.
Measurements:
7 x 9.25 in.
Title:
“From the Carrier of the Visitor to his Patrons”
Description:
The poem, with no known author or date, tells the experience of an American soldier fighting against the elements and the loss of comrades around him to preserve the natural resources and beauty of the land.
Transcription:
[Page 1]
From the Carrier of the Visitor to His Patrons. -----
How shall the newsboy strike a jocund lay To cheer his patrons on the New Year’s Day’s? ‘Tis true, no wishes can be more sincere Than his, that all should spread a happy year. But vain are wishes, when with dire alarms The warring world is clad in hostile arms. Such were the wishes when the year be -gun. But few are happy, now the year is done. When revolutions shake the trembling world And mighty nation to the tomb are hurl’d. When the whole globe from pole to pole shall rock. We too, must feel our portion of the shock. But what if we beside the cheerful fire, Enjoy those comforts which our wants require. And when the storm, with the fury howls around. Feel not the blast, nor heel the dismal sound. Yet the poor soldier, in the northern snows, Hungry and cold, and freezing as he goes, Feel the chill tempests which around him roar. Sighs for that home, he’ll never visit more. A heart of sympathy for other’s words Feels for the sufferer in Canadian snows, And though, perhaphs, he disapproved the cause Which sends our armies forth to foreign wars; Yet when our standard on the embattled need Waves o’er the foe whose hostile banners yield He feels rejoiced to hear our arms suc- ceed, Yet sighs for those whom fate has doom’d to bleed. For those whose blood has stain’d the sanguine plain, How many mourn a friend, or brother slain. On William’s plains all clad in wintry snows, Of Queenston hills where Naigara flows; Or Beaver-dam begirt in gloomy woods, Or Brownstown banks, which bound De- troit’s floods, Or where the Thames his crystal current Winds ‘Mid hills of beech and swamps of wav- ing pines.
It matters little, if the virtuous brave Find nuaght but honor in a distant grave. When fifty years have roll’d their course away Who knows who fell upon the battle day? A Pike’s or Covington’s regretted name May be inscribed upon the rolls of Fame, A Lawrence -Burrow’s- or an Allen’s deeds, May dress their funeral hearse in splendid weeds. But he who smil’d around our social board Who for his country drew his trusty sword. Who sought no honors, - ask’d for no command. Now lies forgotten in a foreign land. And those, whom once his social virtues bless’d Know not the place where now his ashes rest. His age mother heard the dismal tale. Then sunk beneath the willows of the vale: And she to whom he gave his plighted vows, Now laughs a maniac, ‘mid the drifting snows. Such are the pleasures which on war awaits The mournful fortunes of ambitious States.
We hop’d when first the fruitless mock campaign Has clos’d the scenes on Niagara’s plain, And Smyth returned, envied whence he came In wither’d laurels of bombastic fame; That learning wisdom from our errors past Success might crown our varying hopes at last; And when the next campaign its toils should cease The object gain’d, might bid us hope for peace. But disappointment drives these hopes afar And bids us look for long continuing war. Again our generals quarrel, and again Our tented army waits the next campaign. But though the war has spread its evils wide Our manufactures rise on every side, And soon will furnish as our commerce dies Sufficient sources for our own supplies That wealth which once lay floating on the seas, A prey to foreign Orders and Decrees, Shall find new sources in our native soil, To bless our country and reward our toil, Our native mountains, unexplor’d before, Shall yield a rich supply of useful ore. And thousand hills, where now the forest grows. Shall furnish fleece, white as Russian snows. And then again when peace our land shall bless, Our native sons in native garb shall dress, And distant nations, where we used to buy, Shall seek our shores to find their own supply. Then prosperous times shall bless our lands again And the pleas’d newsboy find a happier strain.
- Translation End -
From the Carrier of the Visitor to His Patrons. -----
How shall the newsboy strike a jocund lay To cheer his patrons on the New Year’s Day’s? ‘Tis true, no wishes can be more sincere Than his, that all should spread a happy year. But vain are wishes, when with dire alarms The warring world is clad in hostile arms. Such were the wishes when the year be -gun. But few are happy, now the year is done. When revolutions shake the trembling world And mighty nation to the tomb are hurl’d. When the whole globe from pole to pole shall rock. We too, must feel our portion of the shock. But what if we beside the cheerful fire, Enjoy those comforts which our wants require. And when the storm, with the fury howls around. Feel not the blast, nor heel the dismal sound. Yet the poor soldier, in the northern snows, Hungry and cold, and freezing as he goes, Feel the chill tempests which around him roar. Sighs for that home, he’ll never visit more. A heart of sympathy for other’s words Feels for the sufferer in Canadian snows, And though, perhaphs, he disapproved the cause Which sends our armies forth to foreign wars; Yet when our standard on the embattled need Waves o’er the foe whose hostile banners yield He feels rejoiced to hear our arms suc- ceed, Yet sighs for those whom fate has doom’d to bleed. For those whose blood has stain’d the sanguine plain, How many mourn a friend, or brother slain. On William’s plains all clad in wintry snows, Of Queenston hills where Naigara flows; Or Beaver-dam begirt in gloomy woods, Or Brownstown banks, which bound De- troit’s floods, Or where the Thames his crystal current Winds ‘Mid hills of beech and swamps of wav- ing pines.
It matters little, if the virtuous brave Find nuaght but honor in a distant grave. When fifty years have roll’d their course away Who knows who fell upon the battle day? A Pike’s or Covington’s regretted name May be inscribed upon the rolls of Fame, A Lawrence -Burrow’s- or an Allen’s deeds, May dress their funeral hearse in splendid weeds. But he who smil’d around our social board Who for his country drew his trusty sword. Who sought no honors, - ask’d for no command. Now lies forgotten in a foreign land. And those, whom once his social virtues bless’d Know not the place where now his ashes rest. His age mother heard the dismal tale. Then sunk beneath the willows of the vale: And she to whom he gave his plighted vows, Now laughs a maniac, ‘mid the drifting snows. Such are the pleasures which on war awaits The mournful fortunes of ambitious States.
We hop’d when first the fruitless mock campaign Has clos’d the scenes on Niagara’s plain, And Smyth returned, envied whence he came In wither’d laurels of bombastic fame; That learning wisdom from our errors past Success might crown our varying hopes at last; And when the next campaign its toils should cease The object gain’d, might bid us hope for peace. But disappointment drives these hopes afar And bids us look for long continuing war. Again our generals quarrel, and again Our tented army waits the next campaign. But though the war has spread its evils wide Our manufactures rise on every side, And soon will furnish as our commerce dies Sufficient sources for our own supplies That wealth which once lay floating on the seas, A prey to foreign Orders and Decrees, Shall find new sources in our native soil, To bless our country and reward our toil, Our native mountains, unexplor’d before, Shall yield a rich supply of useful ore. And thousand hills, where now the forest grows. Shall furnish fleece, white as Russian snows. And then again when peace our land shall bless, Our native sons in native garb shall dress, And distant nations, where we used to buy, Shall seek our shores to find their own supply. Then prosperous times shall bless our lands again And the pleas’d newsboy find a happier strain.
- Translation End -
Repository Details
Part of the Wilkes University Archives Repository
Contact:
84 W South St.
Wilkes-Barre PA 18701 US
570-408-2000
570-408-7823 (Fax)
ask.archives@wilkes.edu
84 W South St.
Wilkes-Barre PA 18701 US
570-408-2000
570-408-7823 (Fax)
ask.archives@wilkes.edu