THE

465-5-3

POETS OF AMERICA:

ILLUSTRATED

BY ONE OF HER PAINTERS.

"The world is full of Poetry.—Its words

Are few, but deep and solemn; and they break
Fresh from the fount of feeling."- Percival.

EDITED BY JOHN KEESE.

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NEW YORK:

PUBLISHED BY S. COLMAN,

VIII ASTOR HOUSE.

1840.

Entered according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1839, By S. COLMAN,

in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Southern District of New-York.

PREFACE.

AMERICAN POETRY has hitherto been little more than a happy accident, and seems to have arisen in spite of the practical tendencies of our country, and the prosaic character of our time. It has been produced mostly by minds devoted to sterner studies, and in brief intervals of leisure, snatched from more engrossing toils. The intellectual energy of our land, has as yet consecrated itself, perhaps too exclusively to the mighty work of preparing a spacious home for the thronging multitudes of our population, and building up for their protection, a great national polity. The main part of our poetical literature, therefore, has been oc