Of the numerous writings of William Gilmore Simms, historical or imaginative romances form no inconsiderable part. As a novelist he is vigorous in delineation, dramatic in action, poetic in description, and skilled in the art of story-telling. His pictures of Southern border scenery and life are vivid and natural.
Harriet Beecher Stowe was well known as a writer before the appearance of the work which has given her a world-wide reputation. No work of fiction of any age ever attained so immediate and extensive a popularity as "Uncle Tom's Cabin;" before the close of the first year after its publication it had been translated into all the languages of Europe; many millions of copies had been sold, and it had been dramatized in twenty different forms, and performed in every capital of Europe.
Besides the authors already named, there is a crowd of others of various and high degrees of merit and reputation, but whose traits are chiefly analogous to those already described. Paulding, in "Westward Ho" and "The Dutchman's Fireside," has drawn admirable pictures of colonial life; Dana, in "The Idle Man," has two or three remarkable tales; Flint, Hall, and Webber have written graphic and spirited tales of Western life. Kennedy has described Virginia life in olden times in "Swallow Barn;" and Fay has described "Life in New York;" Hoffman has embodied the early history of New York in a romantic form, and Dr. Bird, that of Mexico. William Ware's "Probus" and "Letters from Palmyra" are classical romances, and Judd's "Margaret" is a tragic story of New England life. Cornelius Mathews has chosen new subjects, and treated them in an original way; John Neal has written many novels full of power and incident. The "Hyperion" and "Kavanagh" of Longfellow establish his success as a writer of fiction; and in adventurous description, the "Omoo" and "Typee" of Melville, and the "Kaloolah" and "Berber" of Mayo have gained an extensive popularity.
This department of literature has been ably represented by the women of the United States, and their contributions form an important part of our national literature. Catharine M. Sedgwick has written the most pleasing and graphic tales of New England life. Lydia M. Child is the author of several fictions, as well as other prose works, which evince great vigor, beauty, and grace. Maria J. McIntosh has written many charming tales; the "New Home" of Mrs. Kirkland, an admirable picture of frontier life, was brilliantly successful, and will be permanently valuable as representing scenes most familiar to the early settlers of the Western States. The works of the Misses Warner are equally popular in England and the United States. Among numerous other names are those of Eliza Leslie, Lydia H. Sigourney, Caroline Gilman, E. Oakes Smith, Alice and Phoebe Cary, Elizabeth F. Ellet, Sarah J. Hale, Emma Willard, Caroline Lee Hentz, Alice B. Neal, Caroline Chesebro, Emma Southworth, Ann S. Stephens, Maria Cummings, Anna Mowatt Ritchie, Rose Terry Cooke, Harriet Prescott Spofford, Augusta J. Evans, Catharine A. Warfield, and the writers under the assumed names of Fanny Forrester, Grace Greenwood, Fanny Fern, Marion Harland, and Mary Forrest, besides many anonymous writers.
4. POETRY.—America has as yet produced no great epic poet, although the existence of a high degree of poetical talent cannot be denied. Carrying the same enthusiasm into the world of fancy that he does into the world of fact, the American finds in the cultivation of the poetic faculty a pleasant relief from the absorbing pursuits of daily life; hence, while poetry is sometimes cultivated as an art, it is oftener resorted to as a pastime; the number of writers is more numerous here than in any other country, and the facility of poetical expression more universal. William C. Bryant (1794-1878) is recognized as the best representative of American poetry. He is extremely felicitous in the use of native materials, and he has a profound love of nature and of freedom united with great artistic skill. He is eminently a contemplative poet; in his writings there is a remarkable absence of those bursts of tenderness and passion which constitute the essence of a large portion of modern verse. His strength lies in his descriptive power, in his serene and elevated philosophy, and in his noble simplicity of language. Richard H. Dana (1787-1879) is the most psychological of the American poets; the tragic and remorseful elements of humanity exert a powerful influence over his imagination, while the mysteries and aspirations of the human soul fill and elevate his mind. His verse is sometimes abrupt, but never feeble, The poems of Fitz- Greene Halleck are spirited and warm with emotion, or sparkling with genuine wit. His humorous poems are marked by an uncommon ease of versification, a natural flow of language, and a playful felicity of jest; his serious poems are distinguished for manly vigor of thought and language, and a beauty of imagery. The poems of Henry W. Longfellow (1807- 1882) are chiefly meditative, and often embody and illustrate significant truths. They give little evidence of the power of overmastering passion, but they are pervaded with an earnestness and beauty of sentiment, expressed in a finished and artistic form, which at once wins the ear and impresses the memory and heart. In "Evangeline" and "Hiawatha," the most popular of his later productions, he has skillfully succeeded in the use of metres unusual in English. The poems of N. P. Willis (1807-1867) are characterized by a vivid imagination and a brilliant wit, combined with grace of utterance and artistic finish. His picturesque elaborations of some of the incidents recorded in the Bible are the best of his poetical compositions. His dramas are delicate creations of sentiment and passion with a relish of the Elizabethan age. J. R. Lowell (b. 1819) unites in his most effective poems a philosophic simplicity with a transcendental suggestiveness. Imagination and philanthropy are the dominant elements in his writings, which are marked by a graceful flow and an earnest tone. His satires contain many sharply-drawn portraits, and his humorous poems are replete with wit.
Washington Allston (1779-1843) owed his chief celebrity to his paintings, but his literary works alone would have given him high rank among men of genius. His poems are delicate, subtle, and philosophical, and though few in number, they are exquisite in finish and in the thoughts which they embody.
James A. Hillhouse (1789-1841) excelled in what may be called the written drama, which, though unsuited to representation, is characterized by noble sentiment and imagery. His dramatic and other poems are the first instances in this country of artistic skill in the higher and more elaborate spheres of poetic writing, and have gained for him a permanent place among the American poets. The "Culprit Fay" of Joseph Rodman Drake (1795-1820) is a poem exhibiting a most delicate fancy and much artistic skill. It was a sudden and brilliant flash of a highly poetical mind which was extinguished before its powers were fully expanded. The poetry of John G. Whittier (b. 1809) is characterized by boldness, energy, and simplicity, often united with tenderness and grace; that of Oliver Wendell Holmes, by humor and genial sentiment. In poetry, as in prose, Edgar A. Poe was most successful in the metaphysical treatment of the passions. His poems, which are constructed with great ingenuity, illustrate a morbid sensitiveness and a shadowy and gloomy imagination. The poems of Henry T. Tuckerman (1813-1871) are expressions of graceful and romantic sentiment or the fruits of reflection, illustrated with a scholar's taste.
Charles Fenno Hoffman (1806-1884) is the author of many admired convivial and amatory poems, and George P. Morris is a recognized song-writer of America.
Of numerous other poets, whose names are familiar to all readers of
American literature, a few only can he named; among them are John G.C.
Brainerd, James G. Percival, Richard H. Wilde, James G. Brooks, Charles
Sprague, Alfred B. Street, T. Buchanan Read, T.B. Aldrich, William Allen
Butler, Albert G. Greene, George D. Prentice, William J. Pabodie, Park
Benjamin, William Gilmore Simms, John R. Thompson, William Ross Wallace,
Charles G. Leland, Thomas Dunn English, William D. Gallagher, Albert Pike,
John G, Saxe, James T. Fields, Arthur Cleveland Coxe, Cornelius Mathews,
John Neal, and Ralph Waldo Emerson.
Among the literary women of the United States are many graceful writers who possess true poetical genius, and enjoy a high local reputation. The "Zophiel" of Maria Brooks (1795-1845) evinces an uncommon degree of power in one of the most refined and difficult provinces of creative art. Frances S. Osgood (1812-1850) was endowed with great playfulness of fancy, and a facility of expression which rendered her almost an improvisatrice. Her later poems are marked by great intensity of feeling and power of expression. The "Sinless Child" of Elizabeth Oakes Smith is a melodious and imaginative poem, with many passages of deep significance. Amelia B. Welby's poems are distinguished for sentiment and melody. The "Passion Flowers" and other poems of Julia Ward Howe are full of ardor and earnestness. Mrs. Sigourney's metrical writings are cherished by a large class of readers. Hannah F. Gould has written many pretty and fanciful poems, and Grace Greenwood's "Ariadne" is a fine burst of womanly pride and indignation. Among many other equally well known and honored names, there are those of Elizabeth F. Ellet, Emma C. Embury, Sarah J. Hale, Anna Mowatt Ritchie, Ann S. Stephens, Sarah H. Whitman, Catharine A. Warfield, and Eleanor Lee, ("Two Sisters of the West") Alice and Phoebe Cary, "Edith May," Caroline C. Marsh, Elizabeth C. Kinney, and Maria Lowell.