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he was held in the various New York homes where with Hal- 

 leck he was a welcome visitor, is reflected in all of Halleck's 

 accounts of those days; but the best sketch of Drake occurs 

 in a letter from Halleck to his sister in 1817; "I send you 

 herewith two manuscript poems, written by a friend of mine. 

 Mr. Drake, whose name, I believe, I once mentioned to you. 

 He is a young physician, about twenty. "The Culprit Fay" 

 was written, begun, and finished in three days. The copy you 

 have is from the original, without the least alteration. It is 

 certainly the best thing of its kind in the English language, 

 and is more strikingly original than I had supposed it possible 

 for a modern poem to be. The other " Lines " were written 

 to a lady, after an evening's ramble near a river, on whose 

 opposite bank a band of music was playing. 'Tis a hackneyed 

 subject, but fie has given it beauty and novelty. . . . The poem 

 was written in August last, since which its author has married, 

 and, as his wife's father is rich, I imagine he will write no 

 more. He was poor, as poets, of course, always are, and 

 offered himself a sacrifice at the shrine of Hymen to shun the 

 ' pains and penalties ' of poverty. I officiated as groomsman, 

 though much against my will. His wife is good-natured, and 

 loves him to distraction. He is, perhaps, the handsomest man 

 in New York." 



This is Drake as his best friends knew him. His limitations 

 are so obvious in the picture, as well as his attractive qualities, 

 that he ought to have been spared the doubtful compliment of 

 comparison with Keats or any other giant of poesy. Had he 

 lived a few years earlier or later, when vital ideas of different 

 kinds were stirring in American literature, he might have felt 

 as deeply as any of the young English poets, and might have 

 used his genius as an instrument for some large purpose, but he 

 came to young manhood at a moment of pause, when litera- 

 ture, at least in New York was merely an accomplishment, 

 and when there was no great example of complete devotion to 

 a life of letters. An exception need not be made of Words- 

 worth, whose consecrated work had not then found the vast 



