Page:The Poets and Poetry of the West.djvu/31

HISTORICAL SKETCH. ' 15 Liberty Hall and Cincinnati Gazette?- The poetic fruit of that spirit was chiefly anonymous, or over fictitious signatures, and upon local topics ; but occasionally verses were produced which would do honor to the poet's corner of a newspaper of the present time. The first book or pamphlet of original verses, published in the West, was printed at Cincinnati, in 1819. It was a duodecimo pamphlet of ninety-two pages, entitled, " American Bai'ds : A Modern Poem, in three parts." The author did not announce himself, but was understood to be Gorham A. Worth.^ Its purpose and value can be presented in a few stanzas : As a general, intent upon movements more near, Where the pride of the battle's ai'rayed, Sends a chief to inspect the divisions in rear, To inspire them with ardor in victory's career, And report each delinquent brigade : So Apollo, engrossed with the Bards of the Isle, So famed, but so garrulous grown. Sends his Aid to the West, to examine the style Of our star-bannered poets, and notice the while What laurels we claimed as our own. His orders expressed, on the wings of the wind. High o'er the Atlantic was borne The deputy-god, thus commissioned to bind In a bundle what garlands our muses had twined, And report, a la critique, as sworn. Having surveyed the South, the East, and the West of America, the deputy-god reported : From the shores of St. John, in the Province of Maine, To the halls of St. Boone, in the West, Her minstrels are heard ; and strain after strain. From the cities, the mountains re-echo again, Till at length 'mid the prairies they rest. Neither his catalogue of those minstrels, nor his opinion of their merits, which he then proceeds to give, is worth quoting. In November, 1819, Joseph Buchanan published, at Cincinnati, the first number of a weekly paper, which he called The Literary Cadet. It gave promise of spirit and taste, but, when twenty-three numbers had been issued, was merged in The Western Spy, which was then entitled The Western Sjjy and Literary Cadet, Mr. Buchanan remaining as editor. The Spy and Cadet soon became the favorite medium of pub- lication for the rhymers, both of Kentucky and of Ohio. A metrical satire by one of their number,^ though, no doubt, more severe than fair, which was published in 1 The Liberty Hall was started in 1804, by Kev. John W. Browne ; and in December, 1815, the Cincinnati Gazette^ begun by Thomas Pahner in July of that year, was merged in it, and it was then published semi-weekly as well as weekly, being the first semi-weekly paper in the North-West. 2 Then a banker in Cincmnati. 3 Thomas Peirce, in No. xx. of " Odes of Horace in Cincinnati," of which account is given, page 36.