162 INTRODUCTION. 



We have no epic that has attained eminent celebrity ; yet the less elaborate and 

 the fugitive pieces, when collected, constitute a treasure not unworthy of public 

 acknowledgment. Sacred song has seldom excelled the beautiful fragment com- 

 mencing " Father of Light," written by William Livingston, in 1747. " Vice," 

 a satire by Gulian Verplanck, which appeared in 1774, is distinguished for taste, 

 elegance and irony. In 1778, Anne E. Bleecker published several fugitive 

 j)ieces, of which " A Thanksgiving after escape from Indian perils," and some 

 others are preserved. Anthony Bleecker, who contributed freely to periodical 

 literature from 1800 to 1825, claims remembrance for an ode which assisted 

 to make the wild and beautiful scenery of Trenton falls known to his country- 

 men. Our national lyric " The American Flag," " The Culprit Fay," and other 

 poems, by J. Rodman Drake, will prove to succeeding generations, that this utili- 

 tarian age is sometimes illumined by brilliant imaginative genius. The refined 

 sentiment and mellifluous measure of " Yamoyden," " The Dead of 1832," and 

 " Weehawken," are relied upon to preserve the memory of the lamented Robert 

 C. Sands. A. H. Bogart, author of an "Anacreontic," in imitation of Moore; 

 Jonathan Lawrence junior, who has left among other poems, " The Clouds," 

 " Look aloft," " Morning among the hills," and an " Ode to May ;" William Leg- 

 gett, author of an exquisite sacred melody, and elegiac verses entitled " Love's 

 Remembrancer ; " James G. Brooks, among whose remains are " Greece," " Joy 

 and Sorrow," "An Ode to the dying year," and other unambitious and touching 

 poems ; Willis Gaylord Clark, author of many beautiful pieces, among which 

 all American readers will remember as peculiarly characteristic of the author, 

 " Mary, Queen of Scots," " The Burial place at Laurel hill," " The Early 

 Dead," and " The Death of the Firstborn ;" James Nack, in whom even the 

 privations of speech and hearing could not repress the utterance of inspiration ; 

 John Rudolph Sutermeister, whose " Faded Hours " were prophetic of his 

 early death ; John B. Van Schaick, the writer of " Joshua commanding the sun 

 and moon to stand still ; " the sisters, Lucretia Maria Davidson and Margaret 

 Miller Davidson; and Lucy Hooper, author of many beautiful poems, will 



