NOTES. 157 THE BUILDER. I HAVE laid each stone in its measured place, LIMITATION. FOR all Philosophy may teach, Only so far can knowledge reach: All that we know from breath to breath Is Life and its great question-Death. FRANK DEMPSTER SHERMAN. -Lippincott's Magazine, February, 1894. -)( NOTES. FITTS. The biographical sketch of James Franklin Fitts was written a short time previous to the death of Dr. Clark. MARZIALS. One of the "Victorian poets," Marzials, is noted for his imitations of French forms of verse. Some of his poems are the result of his studies in Provencal literature. He is the author of "The Gallery of Pigeons, and Other Poems," a work laughed at by some of his critics and praised by others. Poetic license can hardly justify a metaphor like this: "I'd like to be the lavender That makes her linen sweet." BALLOU. The son of Hosea Ballou, a distinguished Universalist clergyman, was born in Boston in 1820. He was fitted for Harvard College and passed his examination, but did not enter. His tastes led him to an editorial career. He became connected with the Olive Branch, a flourishing weekly paper, in 1838. He is the author of "The Treasury of Thought," "Biography of Hosea Ballou," "The History of Cuba," etc. He has also exhibited, in his short lyrical pieces, a marked taste for poetry. WILLIS, NATHANIEL PARKER. Poems, Sacred, Passionate and Humerous. New York: Clark & Maynard, 1869. 16m0, pp. xvi and 380. BALLARD, MARY CANFIEld. Idle Fancies. Philadelphia: W. H. Thompson, 1884. 18m0, pp. x and 183. LANG, ANDREW. Ballades and Verses Vain. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1884. 12mo, pp. vii and 165. IBID. Helen of Troy, Her Life and Translation. Done into Rhyme from the Greek Books. London: George Bell & Sons, 1892. 12mo, pp. 204. WILLIAMS, Dwight. The Beautiful City in Song, and Other Poems. New York: Phillips & Hunt, 1887. 12mo, pp. vii and 144. IBID. The Mother of the Wonderful. Published by the Author. Cazenovia, N. Y. Small 8vo, pp. 26. TRIPP, HOWARD CARLETON. Around the Fireside, and Other Poems. Kingsley, Iowa: Times Publishing Company, 1893. 8vo, pp. xiii and 145. FITTS, JAMES FRANKLIN. Miscellaneous poems. HENRY, CLARA TAYLOR. Miscellaneous poems. BANTA, MELISSA ELIZABETH RIDDLE. Miscellaneous poems. WATSON, STEPHEN MARION. poems. Miscellaneous For Love's New York: PRESTON, MARGARET JUNKIN. Sake, Poems of Faith and Comfort. Anson D. F. Randolph & Company, 1886. 12mo, pp. x and 143. IBID. Colonial Ballades, Sonnets, and Other Verses. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1887. 16mo. WRIGHT, DAVID HENRY. Is Peace on Earth? and Other Poems. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Company, 1892. 12m0, pp. vi and 64. WINTER, WILLIAM. Wanderers. Boston: Ticknor and Company, 1889. 18mo, pp. viii and 200. BOOKS RECEIVED. CUYLER, THEODORE L. From The Nile to Norway and Homeward. New York: Hurst and Company, 1893. 12mo, cloth, pp. 357. HALE, EDWARD E. For Fifty Years. Verses written on occasion, in the course of the Nineteenth Century. Boston: Roberts Brothers, 1893. 12mo, cloth, pp. 133. EVANS, M. A. B. In Various Moods. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1893. 16mo, cloth, pp. 90. FREER, CHARLES H. The Missionary. The Bandit Chief and Other Poems. Illustrated with full-page engravings. Chicago: American Publisher's Association, 1892. 12mo, cloth, pp. 189. CHANDLER, HORACE PARKER. The Lover's Year-Book of Poetry. A collection of love poems for every day in the year. Married-Life and Child-Life. Boston: Roberts Brothers, 1893. 16mo, cloth, 2 vols., pp. 258 and 238. HOOD, THOMAS. Humorous Poems. With a preface by Alfred Ainger, and one-hundred and thirty illustrations by Charles E. Brock. London: Macmillan and Co., 1893. 12mo, cloth, pp. 236. JEBB, R. C. The Growth and Influence of Classical Greek Poetry. Lectures delivered in 1892 on the Percy Turnbull Memorial Foundation in the Johns Hopkins University. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin and Company, 1893. 12mo, cloth, pp. 251. THE MAGAZINE OF POETRY. VOL. VI. M ELIZABETH AKERS ALLEN. RS. ELIZABETH AKERS ALLEN, poet, was born in Strong, Franklin co., Maine, October 9th, 1832. She inherited mental and physical vigor from her father, and delicacy and refinement from her mother, who died when Elizabeth was yet an infant. After her mother's death her father made his home in Farmington, Maine, where the poet's girlhood was passed. A weekly newspaper published in Farmington gave her poems to the public over the pen-name "Florence Percy." Her verses were received with marked favor and were widely copied. Her earliest verses, written when she was only twelve years old, were sent without her knowledge to a Vermont paper, which promptly published them. In 1847 she began to publish over her own name. In 1855 she became assistant editor of the Portland, Maine, Transcript. In 1856 she published her first volume of poetry, "Forest Buds from the Woods of Maine." The volume was a success financially, and she was able to go to Europe, where she spent some time in Italy, France and Germany. In 1860 she was married to her first husband, Paul Akers, the sculptor, a native of Maine. He died in Philadelphia, Pa., in the spring of 1861, at the age of thirtyfive years, just as a brilliant career was opening to him. Their only child, Gertrude, died shortly afterwards, and Mrs. Akers, after rallying from a long mental and physical prostration, returned to Portland and took her old situation in the Transcript office. In 1863 she received an appointment in the War Office in Washington, D. C., at the suggestion of the late Senator Fessenden. She was in Ford's Theater on the night of President Lincoln's assassination. In 1866 she brought out her second volume of verse, "Poems by Elizabeth Akers," which was successful. In the fall of 1866 she was married to E. M. Allen, and went with him to Richmond, Va. While living in that city there arose the famous discussion of the authorship of her poem, "Rock Me to Sleep, No. 4. Mother." That now celebrated poem was written by Mrs. Allen, in 1859, and sent from Rome to the Philadelphia Post, and that journal published it in 1860. In 1872 her husband engaged in business in New York City. After making their home in Ridgewood, N. J., for several years, she has recently removed to New York, and is engaged in literary work. She is a member of Sorosis. H. A. V. ROCK ME TO SLEEP. BACKWARD, turn backward, O Time, in your flight, Backward, flow backward, O tide of the years! Tired of the hollow, the base, and untrue, Over my heart, in the days that are flown, No love like mother-love ever has shone; No other worship abides and endures, Faithful, unselfish, and patient like yours: |