Like fruit that’s large and ripe and mellow,
Sweet and luscious is Longfellow, 17
Melodious songs he oft did pour
And high was his Excelsior.
He shows in his Psalm of Life
The folly of our selfish strife,
With Hiawatha we bewail
His suffering in great Indian tale.
Indian nation was forlorn
Till great spirit planted corn;
His story of Evangeline
It is a tale of love divine.
A great enchanter too is Poe,
His bells do so harmonious flow,
Wondrous mystery of his raven
On our minds is ’ere engraven,
His weird, wonderful romances
Imagination oft entrances.
With pleasure we would love to dwell
On the charming themes of Lowell.
Some in front rank will defiant,
Boldly place the poet Bryant.
Others seek for music in the twitter
Of the sweet, charming notes of Whittier.
The mind that’s sad it doth relax
The humor of the witty Saxe,
He puts us in a cheerful mood,
Mirthful as our own Tom Hood.
In homely apparel one
Clothes farming songs Will Carleton,
But they have a manly ring
And we his praises hearty sing.
And Millar poet of Sierras,
For bold deeds he doth prepare us,
And now he lives by the golden gate,
Honored in California’s state,
To poet ’tis position grand,
Commissioner of Forest land.
O’er flowery fields full oft he roams,
The learned and pleasing genial Holmes.
For erratic style he leads van,
Wildly wayward Walt Whitman,
He done grand work in civil war,
For he did dress many a scar,
And kindly wet the hot parched mouth
Of Northern soldiers wounded South.