Page:The Poets and Poetry of the West.djvu/375

rilGEBE GARY. Phcebe Cart was born in the year 1825, at the old " Clovernook " homestead, in Hamilton county, Ohio. There she lived up to womanhood — a companion of her sis- ter Alice — living apart from the great world — learning life and nature in their actual- ities, — feeling much, dreaming much, hoping much, but realizing little of the satisfac- tion which springs from the consciousness of merit recognized, of worth appreciated. The history of Phoebe's life is written in the life of Alice Gary ; — their lives ran to- gether like the chords of the duet, and their hearts gleaned like lessons from their common experiences. Phoebe commenced writing for the press in her seventeenth year. Her early efforts showed the influence of a home-life and a constant communion with nature ; — they were filled with tenderness, and pervaded with the true poetic apprehension. No in- considerable success follovved upon her earlier efforts, and caused her to be regai'ded with such favor that the "poet-sisters" was the expresssion used to characterize her and the elder sister. When, in 1850, the sisters removed to New York — as stated in the sketch of the life of Alice — their fame had preceded them. They became the object of much notice in literary circles, and, by their united labors, fulfilled the expectations excited by the brilliancy of their western debut. The first volume by the sisters, was given to the public in 1849. It embraced the poems of both Alice and Phoebe which already had been publi:^hed m the papers and magazines of the day. Up to 1854 Phoebe continued to write for the press, always with acceptance to the public. In that year her volume, "Poems and Parodies," was given publicity by Ticknor & Fields, of Boston. It first informed the public as to the authorship of parodies on popular poems, which had excited much attention and had had an extensive republication. The poems of the volume were chiefly short compositions, embodying sentiment and fancy rather than the higher forms of ideality, in their musical rhythm. They served to show the poet in a pleasing light. The parodies, however, w^ere too "representa- tive " to bear any other than a reputation for unique and original characterization. "While they preserved the form and likeness of the originals, they still possessed such humor and quaint sentiment quaintly expressed, as to render them perfect poems of the ludicrous in themselves; and they will, doubtless, long remain among the best par- odies in our literature. While we are disposed to question the taste and propriety of these travesties of the beautiful, their own inherent humor, satire and ludicrous imagery cannot be denied the tribute of a very broad smile, if not of a hearty, chest- born laugh ; therefore we will be excused for inserting here the most " characteristic " of those parodies — on Bayard Taylor's "Manuela, a Ballad of California" — Henry W. Longfellow's "Psalm of Life" — and "The Day is Done;"— Oliver Goldsmith's "When Lovely Woman Stoops to Folly," and James Aldrich's "Death-Bed." ( 359 )