- Joseph Rodman Drake
Joseph Rodman Drake (
August 17 ,1795 –September 21 ,1820 ) was an early American poet.Biography
Born in
New York City , he was orphaned when young and entered a mercantile house. While still a child, he showed a talent for writing poems. He was educated at Columbia. In 1813 he began studying in a physician's office. In 1816 he began to practice medicine and in the same year was married to Sarah, daughter ofHenry Eckford , the naval architect.In 1819, together with his friend and fellow poet
Fitz-Greene Halleck , he wrote a series of satirical verses for the " New York Evening Post", which were published under the penname "The Croakers." Drake died a year later, of consumption, at the age of twenty-five.As a writer, Drake is considered part of the "Knickerbocker group", a group which also included Halleck as well as
Washington Irving ,William Cullen Bryant ,James Kirke Paulding ,Gulian Crommelin Verplanck ,Robert Charles Sands ,Lydia M. Child , andNathaniel Parker Willis . [Nelson, Randy F. "The Almanac of American Letters". Los Altos, California: William Kaufmann, Inc., 1981: 30. ISBN 086576008X] A collection, "The Culprit Fay and Other Poems", was published posthumously by his daughter in 1835. His best-known poems are the long title-poem of that collection, and the patriotic "The American Flag" which was set as a cantata for two soloists, choir and orchestra by the Czech composerAntonin Dvořák in 1892-93, as his Op. 102. [http://www.geocities.com/WestHollywood/Park/4586/aldfr.html]Fitz-Greene Halleck's poem "Green be the turf above thee" was written as a memorial to Drake.
Poetry sample
The American Flag:When Freedom from her mountain height:Unfurled her standard to the air:She tore the azure robe of night:And set the stars of glory there!
:She mingled with its gorgeous dyes:The milky baldric of the skies,:And striped its pure celestial white:With streakings of the morning light;
:Then, from his mansion in the sun, :She called her eagle-bearer down, :And gave into his mighty hand,:The symbol of her chosen land.
:Flag of the brave! thy folds shall fly :The sign of hope and triumph high!:When speaks the signal-trumpet tone:And the long line comes gleaming on.
:Ere yet the life-blood, warm and wet, :Has dimmed the glistening bayonet:Each soldier eye shall brightly turn :To where thy sky-born glories burn, :And as his springing steps advance, :Catch war and vengeance from the glance;
:And when the cannon-mouthings loud :Heaven in wild wreaths the battle-shroud :And gory sabers rise and fall, :Like shoots of flame on midnight's pall;
:Then shall thy meteor-glances glow, :And cowering foes shall sink beneath :Each gallant arm that strikes below :That lovely messenger of death.
:Flag of the seas! on ocean wave :Thy stars shall glitter o'er the brave; :When death. careening on the gale, :Sweeps darkly round the bellied sail,
:And frighted waves rush wildly back :Before the broadside's reeling rack, :Each dying wanderer of the sea :Shall look at once to heaven and thee. :And smile to see thy splendors fly :In triumph o'er his closing eye.
:Flag of the free heart's hope and home, :By angel hands to valor given! :Thy stars have lit the welkin dome, :And all thy hues were born in heaven.
:And fixed as yonder orb divine. :That saw thy bannered blaze unfurled, :Shall thy proud stars resplendent shine, :The guard and glory of the world. [http://www.geocities.com/flag_of_usa/american_flagPL.htm]
References
External links
*gutenberg author|id=Joseph_Rodman_Drake|name=Joseph Rodman Drake
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