Mrs. Sarah Morgan (Bryant) Piatt, a noted American poet, was born at Lexington, Ky., August 11, 1836. Her best known works are: “A Woman’s Poems,” “A Voyage to the Fortunate Isles,” “Dramatic Persons and Moods,” “The Witch in the Glass,” “An Enchanted Castle,” etc.
How beautiful is night!
A dewy freshness fills the silent air;
No mist obscures; nor cloud, nor speck, nor stain,
Breaks the serene of heaven:
In full-orbed glory, yonder moon divine
Rolls through the dark blue depths;
Beneath her steady ray
The desert circle spreads
Like the round ocean, girdled with the sky.
How beautiful is night!
“Thalaba,” Book i, Stanza 1,—Robert Southey.
Robert Southey, an English poet and prose-writer, of great renown, was born in Bristol, August 12, 1774, and died March 21, 1843. He wrote: “A Vision of Judgment,” “Joan of Arc,” “Thalaba the Destroyer,” “The Curse of Kehama,” “Life of Nelson,” “The Doctor,” “Book of the Church,” “Life of John Bunyan,” “Life of John Wesley,” “History of Brazil,” etc.
One day thou didst desert me—when I learned
How looks the world to men that lack thy grace,
And toward the shadowy night sick-hearted turned,—
When, lo! the first star brought me back thy face!
“To Imagination,”—Edith Matilda Thomas.
Edith Matilda Thomas, a famous American poet, was born in Chatham, Ohio, August 12, 1854. She has written: “A New Year’s Masque,” “The Round Year,” “Children of the Seasons,” “Babes of the Year,” “Babes of the Nation,” “Lyrics and Sonnets,” “Heaven and Earth,” “The Inverted Torch,” “Fair Shadow Land,” “In Sunshine Land,” “In the Young World,” “A Winter Swallow, and Other Verse,” “The Dancers,” “Cassia and Other Verse,” “Children of Christmas,” “The Guest of the Gate,” “The White Messenger,” “The Flower from the Ashes,” etc.
Cruel is death? Nay, kind, he that is ta’en
Was old in wisdom, though his years were few;
Life’s pleasure hath he lost—escaped life’s pain,
Nor wedded joys, nor wedded sorrows knew.
“On a Youth,” Translated from Julianus,—Goldwin Smith.
Goldwin Smith, a renowned English historian, essayist and educator, was born at Reading, Berkshire, August 13, 1823, and died June 7, 1910. He has written: “Irish History and Irish Character,” “Foundation of the American Colonies,” “England and America,” “The Civil War in America,” “Lectures on the Study of History,” “Short History of England,” “Life of Cowper,” “Life of Jane Austen,” “Guesses at the Riddle of Existence,” “Reminiscences” (1910), “The Empire,” “My Memory of Gladstone,” etc.