James Gates Percival

"Theirs is no vulgar sepulchre--green sods Are all their monument, and yet it tells A nobler history than pillared piles Or the eternal pyramids."

"Hail to the land whereon we tread, Our fondest boast! The sepulchres of mighty dead, The truest hearts that ever bled, Who sleep on glory’s brightest bed, A fearless host: No slave is here:—our unchained feet, Walk freely as the waves that beat Our coast."

"On thy fair bosom, silver lake, The wild swan spreads his snowy sail, And round his breast the ripples break As down he bears before the gale."

"The water is calm and still below, For the winds and waves are absent there, And the sands are bright as the stars that glow In the motionless fields of upper air."

"Percival, the most popular poet before Bryant, a poet who made the first attempt in our history to write the meeting-place between the kind of experience which may be called scientific, and poetry, is ignored. More than ignored: he is referred to in all the anthologies as a one-poem poet, and then a poor imitative poem, "The Coral Grove," is printed."