Together may we promises of attachment and truth. Poems written to his Wife. During her lifetime. "O Fairest of the Rural Maids." The Future Life. The Life that Is. (After her dangerous illness in 1858.) At her death. October, 1866. Seven years afterward. A Memory. (Unfinished.) "I never wrote a poem that I did not repeat to her, and take her judgment upon it." Connection with The New York Evening Post. 1826-1878. Bryant, as editor, protested vigorously against slavery, advocated free trade, and made the paper strongly Democratic. Maintained in it an exceptionally high moral and intellectual tone. Six Tours to Europe, one extended to Egypt and Syria. Letters from a Traveller. Letters from the East. Letters from Spain and other countries. Publication of Poems, second collection, complete. 1832. Washington Irving (not then acquainted with Bryant) brought out an English edition of them, writing a complimentary preface. Professor Wilson reviewed the verses patronizingly in Blackwood's Magazine. Received well by the English public. Extensive Travel in the United States at different times; in Mexico and Cuba. Thirty Years of uneventful life. Mellow old age. "Beside a massive gateway built up in years gone by, Upon whose top the clouds in eternal shadow lie, While streams the evening sunshine on quiet wood and lea, I stand and calmly wait till the hinges turn for me." WAITING BY THE GATE. Memorial Discourses on Thomas Cole, the artist, James Fenimore Cooper, Goethe, Shakespeare, Scott, Irving, Mazzini. Bryant had a peculiar fitness for this sort of oration, "He was an accomplished, graceful, and impressive speaker." Translation of Homer. A work requiring six years. 1866-1872. Undertaken when the poet was more than seventy years old, as a solace after the loss of his wife. (As Longfellow turned to Dante under the same bereavement.) Done in Blank Verse. Use of Roman names of gods and goddesses. In many respects the best English translation. Homeric spirit. Saxon English. Some earlier translators: George Chapman, Alexander Pope, William Cowper, I. Charles Wright. A later translator, William Morris. (Read the fifth book of The Odyssey.) Honors Paid Him Living. Celebration of his Seventieth Birthday by the Century Club, Poems by Lowell, Holmes, Bayard Taylor, Tuckerman, Presentation of Folio of forty studies by the various art Reception by the New York Legislature when he was visiting Governor Tilden. Commemorative Vase, on his eightieth birthday, presented by the citizens of New York. Designed by J. H. Whitehouse, Greek in form, and adorned with symbols of Bryant's life and poems. Kept in New York's Metropolitan Museum. (This museum possesses also a bronze bust of the poet.) See Harper's Magazine, July, 1876; and Gilman's Poets' (Another eightieth birthday gift was a cactus plant, brought Admitted to the Russian Academy. 1873. Death, in the Month of June, after a fall and a short illness consequent upon it. His desire to die in this month. See poem, “June." His daughter, Mrs. Parke Godwin, also passed away in the same season of the year (June, 1893). Buried at Roslyn, L.I. His poem, "June," recited at the funeral. His First Biographer. Parke Godwin, his son-in-law. Character. Unimpassioned, reserved, and lofty in nature; "clear in mind, sober in judgment, refined in taste;" considerate of the "He Deeply religious. In doctrine he was of the Unitarian faith. Bryant received private baptism at the age of sixty-four, when in Naples, and during the all but fatal illness of his wife. Appearance and Manner. Majestic, kingly, reverence-inspiring. ("He was a favorite with photographers and artists in crayon.") Tall and slender. Well-shaped head, high forehead, overhanging eyebrows, deep-set and keen eyes, aquiline nose. "He resembled a Greek philosopher more than Longfellow or Walt Whitman." "His face, like his voice, had the innate charm of tranquillity." In manner he was modest, courteous, dignified, and kindly. Habits. Usually rose at five o'clock and retired at ten. Took daily morning gymnastic exercises and a cold bath throughout his long life. Walked much, two miles to his business every day. A pleasurable sight to New Yorkers for fifty years. "The good gray head, which all men knew," is as applicable to Bryant as to the Duke of Wellington. Never indulged in a stimulant (even coffee), a narcotic, or condiments. "He treated his body as God's temple." His perfect health was notable; although when young he was Memory. threatened with pulmonary weakness, he threw off the trouble, and was never known to have a sickness in his more than fourscore years of active life. Marvellous. He said that with a moment's reflection he could recall every poem he had ever written; while his resources as to the poetry of English authors were inexhaustible. "He was fastidious about his reading, believing that there was no worse thief than a bad book." Linguistic Accomplishments. Bryant spoke all the living European languages save Greek, and was familiar with the literatures of many of them. APPELLATIONS. THE NESTOR OF OUR POETS. THE FATHER OF OUR SONG. OUR MEDITATIVE POET OF NATURE. THE POET OF NEW ENGLAND WILD FLOWERS. THE GREAT AMERICAN. NATURE'S CELEBRANT. THE FOREMOST CITIZEN. A TYPICAL REPUBLICAN. THE AMERICAN WORDSWORTH. OUR PURITAN GREEK. A PROPHET IN THE WILDERNESS. THE POET OF PAINTERS. A HIGH PRIEST AT THE ALTAR OF NATURE. THE LITERARY AND CIVIC NESTOR OF NEW YORK SOCIETY. OUR EARLY LANDSCAPE POET. CALM PRIEST OF NATURE. BARD OF THE ELEMENTS. |