Item 6: Poem by Fitz-Greene Halleck, 1844 October 11
Item — Box: 15, Folder: 6
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: 1844 October 11
Creator
- Halleck, Fitz-Greene, 1790-1867 (Person)
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:
Poor.
Measurements:
7 in. x 4 ½ in. (poem); 5 ⅝ in. x 2 ⅛ in. (transcription)
Title:
N/A
Description:
Fitz-Greene Halleck, 1790-1867, was an American poet and editor. The untitled poem (9 lines, 1 stanza) describes the Wyoming Valley in Northeastern Pennsylvania. Halleck comments on the beauty of the natural environment of the area comparing it to a dream. Line two is a direct quote from a poem written by Scottish poet Thomas Campbell, titled, “Gertrude of Wyoming” whose beginning line is “On Susquehanna’s side, fair Wyoming.” Campbell’s work is also heavily based in the natural beauty of the American landscape. Transcription above includes a description of the poem below it in a type of advertisement including the date, price, physical, and thematic descriptions of the poem. The beginning introduction also includes background information citing violence between Native Americans and settlers described as a “bloody massacre” in the summer of 1778, also known as The Battle of Wyoming.
Transcription:
[Page 1]
50 HALLECK, Fitz-Greene. Noted American Poet. Auto. MS. Poem SGD. Ip., oblong 8vo. Oct. 11, 1844. $15.00
Fine Orignal Autograph Manuscript, consisting of nine lines, one stanza, from Halleck’s poem on the beautiful Wyoming Valley in northern Pennsylvania. This valley, a veritable Indian Paradise before the coming of the white settlers, was the scene of a bloody massacre committed by the savages at the instigation of the Tories in the summer of 1778.
“Thou com’st in beauty on my gaze at last, ‘On Susquehanna’s side, fair Wyoming,’ Image of many a dream, in hours long past, When life was in its bud and blossoming, And waters, gushing from the fountain spring Of pure enthusiast thought, dimm’d my young eyes, As by the poet borne, on unseen wing, I breathed, in fancy, ‘neath thy cloudless skies, The summer’s air, and heard her echoed harmonies.”
- Translation End -
50 HALLECK, Fitz-Greene. Noted American Poet. Auto. MS. Poem SGD. Ip., oblong 8vo. Oct. 11, 1844. $15.00
Fine Orignal Autograph Manuscript, consisting of nine lines, one stanza, from Halleck’s poem on the beautiful Wyoming Valley in northern Pennsylvania. This valley, a veritable Indian Paradise before the coming of the white settlers, was the scene of a bloody massacre committed by the savages at the instigation of the Tories in the summer of 1778.
“Thou com’st in beauty on my gaze at last, ‘On Susquehanna’s side, fair Wyoming,’ Image of many a dream, in hours long past, When life was in its bud and blossoming, And waters, gushing from the fountain spring Of pure enthusiast thought, dimm’d my young eyes, As by the poet borne, on unseen wing, I breathed, in fancy, ‘neath thy cloudless skies, The summer’s air, and heard her echoed harmonies.”
- Translation End -
Creator
- Halleck, Fitz-Greene, 1790-1867 (Person)
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