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Mr. Allan. The remainder of Poe's life was
one of poverty and struggle, despite his pos-
session of literary and editorial gifts that should
have insured him success. His first poems
appeared in 1827, and other volumes were
published in 1829 and 1831. In consequence
of the reputation gained by these poems, he
was appointed editor of the Southern Literary
Messenger, published at Richmond; later he
edited periodicals in Philadelphia and New
York. He desired most of all to found a lit-
erary magazine in the South and went back to
Richmond to start the project. For this he
had been prepared by his reputation not only as
a poet but as the greatest writer of short stories
America had produced; he was also a literary
critic whose work, though not large in amount,
was of high quality. The project, however,
was not destined to come to reality, on account
of his untimely death. Collections of his
prose tales appeared in 1839 and 1845, and his
last volume of poems in 1845. Poetry he
defined as "the rhythmical creation of beauty";
he preferred the lyric to other forms of poetry,
because he held that a true poem represents a
moment of intense emotional experience. The
same idea runs through much of his comment
on the meaning and art of the short story,
which he preferred to the novel because of
greater compactness and unity. Further de-
tails on some points connected with the life
and work of Poe will be found on page 76.

ROOSEVELT, THEODORE (1858-1919), twenty-
sixth President of the United States, was born
in the city of New York. He was graduated
from Harvard University and soon afterwards
was elected to the legislature of New York.
He was appointed Assistant Secretary of the
Navy by President McKinley, a position which
he resigned to enter the Spanish-American War.
In 1898 he was elected Governor of New York
and in 1900 Vice-President of the United States.
Upon the death of McKinley, Roosevelt be-
came President. He was a vigorous American,
basing his theory of politics on honesty, courage,
hard work, and fair play. His writings cover a
wide range, but particularly helpful are those
dealing with the ideals of citizenship.

SCHERER, JAMES A. B. (1870- ), was born
in Salisbury, North Carolina, and was educated
at Roanoke College, Virginia. He has written
a number of books on Japan, having spent
several years in that country. Mr. Scherer has
been President of Newberry College (South
Carolina) and of Throop College of Technology
at Pasadena, California. He was made a
member of the California Council of Defense
and also of the Council of National Defense.

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SHELLEY, PERCY BYSSHE (1792-1822). Born
in Sussex, England, in a wealthy family,
Shelley did not have the heart-breaking struggle
with poverty that was the fate of many other
young men who desired to enter a literary
career. Before he was ten years old he wrote
a play, and as a student at Eton, one of the
great English preparatory schools, he wrote a
novel and sold it to a publisher for forty pounds.
He was a lover of science, especially chemistry,
and his room at Oxford was filled with all kinds
of material used in his experiments. He was
forced to leave Oxford without completing his
course, had a quarrel with his father, and for
a time lived only on the small sums his sisters
gave him. After a time he was reconciled to
his father, and went on with various schemes
for reform. He hated tyranny of every sort,
and many of his best poems are devoted to the
praise of liberty. He was a great student of
philosophy, of ancient literature, and of the
Italian poets. In 1818 he went to Italy, where
he passed the remainder of his life. While
he wrote several dramas and some narrative
poems, Shelley's genius was chiefly lyrical.
He could not tell a story well because he was
often so carried away by some vision of beauty,
some scene that he wished to describe, or by
intense emotion, that the thread of the story is
lost. But his songs, his poems of Nature de-
scription (such, for example, as "The Cloud,"
"The Skylark," "The West Wind") and such
philosophical poems as "Prometheus Unbound"
and the "Hymn to Intellectual Beauty," are
among the finest in English literature. Perhaps
the greatest of all his poems is "Adonais," a
lament for Keats.

SILL, EDWARD ROWLAND (1841-1887), was
born at Windsor, Connecticut. He was grad-
uated from Yale and lived most of his life in Cal-
ifornia, being for some years professor of
English language and literature at the State
University. Sill was a true poet, but the
whole of his literary output is contained in
two slender volumes. His poems are noted
for their compressed thought. The selection
here given shows this quality.

SOUTHEY, ROBERT (1774-1843). Before he
left school Southey had planned to portray
"all the more prominent and poetical forms of
mythology which have at any time obtained
among mankind, by making each the ground-
work of an heroic poem." He did not live up
to these ambitious ideals, but the number of

his works is very great, and most of his poems
are very long. His first epic was devoted to
Joan of Arc, as with Coleridge and Wordsworth
he was an enthusiastic admirer of France. A
long series of metrical romances deal with
oriental subjects, and he also wrote many
ballads. His verse-narratives preceded those
of Scott, and were well received, though Southey
did not attain the enormous popularity after-
wards won by Scott. Southey translated
romances from the Spanish, and was a scholar
of distinction. His prose includes histories,
notably a history of Brazil, and a series of
excellent biographies, of which the life of
Nelson is the most famous. In 1813 he be-
came poet laureate.

SPENCER, WILLIAM ROBERT (1769-1834),
English poet and wit, was educated at Harrow
and Oxford, and was commissioner of stamps
from 1797 to 1826. His wit and accomplish-
ments made him very popular in London
society, but natural indolence prevented his
winning prominence in public life. His works
include a translation of Bürger's Leonore,
Urania, a Burlesque, and Poems. Owing to
financial embarrassment he withdrew to Paris
in 1825, and remained there until his death.

STEINER, EDWARD A. (1866- ), was born
in Vienna, Austria, and was graduated from
the University of Heidelberg. Himself an
immigrant, later a naturalized citizen of Amer-
ica, he has been active in Americanization
work in the United States, both through his
lectures and his writings. Among his best-
known works are From Alien to Citizen, from
which "America" is taken; On the Trail of the
Immigrant; Nationalizing America; and The
Immigrant Tide.

STEVENSON, ROBERT LOUIS (1850-1894). For
biography see pages 79-84.

TARBELL, IDA MINERVA (1857- ), author
and magazine writer, was born in Pennsylvania.
After being graduated from Allegheny College
she studied in Paris. Some of her best-known
works are: Life of Abraham Lincoln; Short Life
of Napoleon Bonaparte; He Knew Lincoln; His-
tory of the Standard Oil Company; New Ideals
in Business.

THOMAS, LETTA EULALIA, one of the younger
group of writers of the Middle West, lives in
Grand Rapids, Michigan. Much of her lyric
verse has been given musical setting and has
been produced in the larger cities of the United
States. Her poem, "What America Means to
Me," was awarded the Theodosia Garrison
Poetry Prize at the Biennial Convention of
the National Federation of Women's Clubs in

1920, in a contest open to all members of
women's clubs of the United States.

THOREAU, HENRY DAVID (1817-1862). Born
at Concord, Massachusetts; his father, a pencil
maker; educated at Harvard, where he began
his practice of keeping a journal. All his
writings, covering thirty manuscript volumes,
were in this form, and most of his books have
been made up after his death by selecting
passages from different places in these journals.
As a whole, they show the great amount of
interesting material that may be gathered by
one who keeps his eyes open to things that sur-
round him every day. Most of Thoreau's
life was devoted to "endless walks and miscel-
laneous studies." In 1845 he built for himself
a hut on the shore of Walden Pond, a small lake
near Concord, where he lived for two years a
life of meditation, study, and simple work.
He says his total expense for the two years was
seventy dollars. He kept a record of his ob-
servations "on man, on Nature, and on human
life" that was published under the title of
Walden in 1854. This is his most widely known
book. It is filled with minute observations on
insects, birds, the waters of the pond, the
weather, and many similar subjects. Besides
these observations of Nature, there are many
comments on life and politics, on literature and
various philosophical subjects, but it is as a
book about Nature that Walden will live. It
is marked by the simplicity and sincerity that
characterized the man.

TIMROD, HENRY (1829-1867), was born in
Charleston, South Carolina. He was educated
at the University of Georgia. His father was
the author of a volume of verse, and the son
became a contributor to Russell's Magazine and
The Southern Literary Messenger. He was
engaged in journalism as correspondent and
editor of South Carolina newspapers during the
war. His poems were published in 1859; they
were edited in 1873 by his friend, Paul Hamilton
Hayne, and later, by J. P. Kennedy Bryan.

TWAIN, MARK (SAMUEL L. CLEMENS, 1835-
1910), was born in Missouri and passed his boy-
hood in the river town of Hannibal, where he
learned much about the sort of life that he
depicts in several of his best-known books.
He was of a roving disposition. At twelve he
was apprenticed to a printer; later he went
East and worked at his trade in New York
and Philadelphia. In 1856 he secured work
on the Mississippi River and in two years was
a licensed steamboat pilot. His experiences
here he used in his book entitled Life on the
Mississippi (1883). With his brother he went
to Nevada, worked at mining and lumbering,
and finally edited a paper at Virginia City.

After a short experience here he went to San
Francisco and secured a position on a daily
paper, which he soon gave up in order to travel
in the Sandwich Islands. In 1867 his story
about the "Celebrated Jumping Frog," pub-
lished in a New York paper, attracted attention,
and a series of letters written while on a trip
to Europe and Palestine was published under
the title of Innocents Abroad in 1869. On his
return he did editorial work on a paper in
Buffalo, and in 1871 moved to Hartford,
Connecticut. Most of his later life was spent
in Connecticut and New York, but his most
distinctive literary work is identified with the
West, which he knew thoroughly. His fame
rests on The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876)
and Huckleberry Finn (1885). For additional
details about these books see page 16.

WHITE, GILBERT (1720-1793), English writer
on natural history, was born in Selborne, Eng-
land. He was educated at Oxford and in 1747
was ordained to the ministry. He spent most
of his life in or near the little Hampshire village
of Selborne. His daily life was unbroken by
great changes or incidents and left him free to
indulge his strong naturalist tendencies. The
Natural History of Selborne, from which "The
Tortoise" is taken, has been said to be the
first book which raised natural history into
the region of literature.

WHITTIER, JOHN GREENLEAF (1807-1892).
Born in Haverhill, Massachusetts, in a family
of Quaker farmers; the house in which he was
born had been occupied by the Whittier family
since 1688. His boyhood was passed in work
on the farm and in short terms of study in the
country school. At fourteen he came upon a
volume of poems by Burns and these inspired
him to try his hand at writing poetry. A little
later he was able to attend Haverhill Academy
for two winters, earning his expenses by shoe-
making. In 1828 he edited a Boston paper for
a short time and later on was connected with
weekly papers at Haverhill and at Hartford,
Connecticut. In 1836 he moved to Amesbury,
which became his home for the remainder of
his life. He published a collection of poems in
1837, and other volumes appeared at frequent
intervals throughout his life. "Snow-Bound,"
the best-known of his longer poems, appeared in
1866. This poem is often compared with "The
Cotter's Saturday Night" because of its pic-
tures of life in a rural community. Whittier
wrote many ballads and lyrics; it is chiefly as
a lyric and descriptive poet that he is remem-
bered. His subjects were drawn from early
New England history, Indian legends, and

Nature and life in rural Massachusetts. He is
remembered also as a writer of hymns and
other poems of religious faith. Books had
little influence on him; he sang of the dignity of
labor and of simple faith.

WILSON, WOODROW (1856- ), twenty-
eighth President of the United States, is a
native of Virginia. He was educated at Prince-
ton University, and later became president of
that institution. He has written many books
on history and government, which are models
of good English. In 1911 he became Governor
of New Jersey, and in 1913 he entered upon his
duties as President of the United States, serving
throughout the difficult period of the World War.

WORDSWORTH, WILLIAM (1770-1850). Born
in Cumberland, England; his boyhood passed
amid scenes of great natural beauty, which had
a deeper influence on him than the formal edu-
cation he received in school and at Cambridge
University. While a college student he went
on a walking tour on the Continent and was
powerfully impressed by the revolutionary
movements then going on. For a time he was
an ardent sympathizer with the Revolution in
France; after his return, however, he settled
down to a life of study and meditation, broken
only now and then by foreign travel. His
friendship for Coleridge led to the publication
in 1798 of a small volume written by the two
men and named Lyrical Ballads. To this
Wordsworth contributed a number of poems
about Nature in which he sought to show the
beauty and mystery in common scenes. His
poetry, like that of Coleridge, was very different
from what was then regarded in England as true
poetry; it used only simple words, preferred
simple themes, and found in ordinary aspects
of Nature and life abundant material for ex-
pressing emotion and interpreting beauty.
Because of the difference in subject and form
from the standards of the time, this poetry was
not at first well received. Later in his life,
however, Wordsworth was widely recognized as
one of the greatest of English poets. His
poems, which are very numerous, are on
great variety of subjects: stories, Nature
poems, and poems giving his ideas on many
aspects of life and thought.

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INDEX OF TOPICS AND SPECIAL TERMS

Accent (stress), 290, 300. In general, emphasis on a syllable or a word. In prose, these stresses come at irregular intervals, just as the words of the sentence happen to be arranged. Test this with the sentence you have just read, marking each stress with an "x." In most verse, the words and syllables are so arranged as to bring the accented syllables at regular intervals, thus producing that regularity of sound and movement which we call meter. Note that words of one syllable, if important, may receive stress in poetry. See Rhythm, Meter, Iambic, etc.

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Drama, 211-214, 381-382, 436-437, 441. comedy, 382.

heroic, 214, 441. tragedy, 382.

Epic, 212, 215-218, 236, 238, 290, 441. folk, 212.

Essay, 22.

Figure of speech, 300. Any use of words that is not literal, but which suggests comparison or picture. See Simile, Metaphor, etc.

Gloss, 270.

Iambic Tetrameter, 300. Verse in which four accents occur in a line, each accented or stressed syllable being preceded by an unstressed syllable. An iambus is composed of an unstressed syllable followed by one that is stressed, as in the word compel.

Imagery, 528. The work of the imagination or fancy in decorating or making vivid oral or written composition; the use of images or figures of speech in composition. See Figure of Speech.

Incremental repetition, 239. A technical term used to describe a method of repetition of words or phrases, especially in ballad poetry, in which a small increment or addition is made to the story with each repetition.

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