An Unpublished Poem of Alexander Wilson 



BY ROBEET P. SHARPLES 



While nobody now lives to tell of a personal acquaintance 

 with Alexander Wilson, the ornithologist, some of us can recall 

 tales told in our youth by persons who did know him. And it 

 is tradition in our family that good old Grandmother Jackson^ 

 as she was known in later days, was a pupil of Wilson while he 

 taught school in the suburbs of Philadelphia in 1800. Wilson, 

 as is well known, aspired to poetical fame; but while some of 

 his work was meritorious, much of it was of very inferior quality. 



One day he was going through a woods on the John Bartram 

 farm when he caught a " Hen Hawk " alive. He took it home 

 with him, but had no place to keep it. Shortly afterward the 

 following rhyme was penned and sent with the hawk to his 

 neighbor, Samuel Gibson, who was Grandmother Jackson's 

 father. It has been treasured in the family ever since, though 

 there is no record as to whether the appeal met with a favorable 

 response. Mr. Witmer Stone informs me that he has in his 

 possession another copy of the same poem taken from the original 

 in the possession of Dr. Samuel Gibson Dixon, President of the 

 Academy of Natural Sciences, and great-grandson of Samuel 

 Gibson. 



THE HEN hawk's PETITION 



A Hawk, a noble Hawk, am I, 

 Who boldly sailed the lofty sky, 

 Until a Scotchman, like a Fox, 

 Surprised me on John Bartram's rocks. 

 He such an Indian war whoop sounded, 

 Like Pat of old he me confounded, 

 And home to Maximilian Leech's 

 Bore me, grappled in his Clutches. 



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