PARK BENJAMIN 1809-1864 THIS journalist, lecturer, and poet was born at Demerara, British Guiana, and died at New York, where he spent the greater part of his life. His sister was married to John Lothrop Motley, the author of The Rise of the Dutch Republic. Benjamin edited more than one magazine in New York, and also worked on the Tribune under Horace Greeley. His poems were never collected. Perhaps the best known is the one given below. THE OLD SEXTON NIGH to a grave that was newly made, A relic of bygone days was he, And his locks were white as the foamy sea; And these words came from his lips so thin: "I gather them in! for man and boy, But come they strangers or come they kin— throne Many are with me, but still I'm alone, Come they from cottage or come they from hall, Let them loiter in pleasure or toilfully spin I gather them in, I gather them in. "I gather them in, and their final rest 5 Is here, down here, in the earth's dark breast!" And the sexton ceased, for the funeral train Wound mutely o'er that solemn plain ! And I said to my heart, when time is told, A mightier voice than that sexton's old Will sound o'er the last trump's dreadful din- EPES SARGENT 1813-1880 SARGENT was a considerable figure in his day as editor, novelist, dramatist, biographer, and poet. In journalism he saw service on the staffs of both the New York Mirror and the Boston Transcript. He wrote popular plays, lives of Henry Clay and Benjamin Franklin, several works on spiritualism, and a volume of poems called Songs of the Sea. He was born at Gloucester, Massachusetts, and died at Boston. A LIFE ON THE OCEAN WAVE A LIFE on the ocean wave, A home on the rolling deep, On this dull, unchanging shore : The spray and the tempest's roar ! 15 20 THIS writer of graceful verses was born at Martinsburg, Virginia. He was educated at Princeton, where he was noted for his love of outdoor sports. He was admitted to the bar, but spent most of his time in writing verses and chasing foxes on his country estate in Virginia. His mind matured early, for he entered Princeton at fifteen and wrote for the Knickerbocker Magazine at seventeen. His talents, however, were obscured by frail health. He died at the age of thirtyfour. John Esten Cooke, the novelist, was his younger brother. FLORENCE VANE I LOVED thee long and dearly, Florence Vane; My life's bright dream and early Hath come again; 20 |