The American flag. By Joseph Rodman Drake. Illustrated from original drawings by F. O. C. Darley. Illuminated cover by John A. Hows. Music from Bellini, by Geo. Danskin.
The poetical writings of Fitz-Greene Halleck, microform with extracts from those of Joseph Rodman Drake
(This book was originally published prior to 1923, and rep...)
This book was originally published prior to 1923, and represents a reproduction of an important historical work, maintaining the same format as the original work. While some publishers have opted to apply OCR (optical character recognition) technology to the process, we believe this leads to sub-optimal results (frequent typographical errors, strange characters and confusing formatting) and does not adequately preserve the historical character of the original artifact. We believe this work is culturally important in its original archival form. While we strive to adequately clean and digitally enhance the original work, there are occasionally instances where imperfections such as blurred or missing pages, poor pictures or errant marks may have been introduced due to either the quality of the original work or the scanning process itself. Despite these occasional imperfections, we have brought it back into print as part of our ongoing global book preservation commitment, providing customers with access to the best possible historical reprints. We appreciate your understanding of these occasional imperfections, and sincerely hope you enjoy seeing the book in a format as close as possible to that intended by the original publisher.
Joseph Rodman Drake was an early American poet who thought too highly of poetry to think of himself as a poet and never subjected his powers to the discipline that they merited.
Background
Joseph Rodman Drake was born on August 7, 1793 in New York. He was the son of Jonathan Drake of Pelham Manor, New York, seventh in descent from John Drake, who came to Boston and settled in Windsor, in 1630.
This original immigrant was the son of John Drake of Plymouth, England, who, in 1606, was appointed by James I member of a company to attend to the settling of New England. Jonathan Drake married Hannah Lawrence, daughter of Effingham Lawrence of Flushing, L. I.
Education
Drake was a student of medicine in a school on Barclay St. , New York. In 1816 he received his medical degree — at the head of his class.
Career
Early in 1819, in partnership with William Langstaff, Drake opened a drug store. His health began to fail, however, owing, it is said, to overwork in his profession, and in the autumn of the same year he journeyed by coach to New Orleans to visit his mother.
When he returned, in the spring of 1820, he was far advanced in consumption, and on September 21, in his twenty-sixth year, he died.
The only work of Drake’s to be published during his life was the “Croaker Papers, ” satirical and humorous poems, rich in local allusion, which with Halleck he contributed to the New York Evening Post, between March 10 and July 24, 1819.
Of these “The American Flag” and “The Culprit Fay” are still well known, at least by name; although “Bronx” and “Niagara” deserve attention as nature pieces and the lines “To a Friend” are an interesting statement of his strong preference for indigenous themes in poetry.
“The Culprit Fay” was long regarded as one of the best American poems. It was written during three days, in August 1816, and was prompted by the challenging remark that American rivers are too poorly furnished with mythological and legendary lore to be subjects for poetry. Its 640 lines display spontaneity and facility rather than mastery or deep originality.