Page:The Poets and Poetry of the West.djvu/53

l,S20-30.] THOMAS P EI RCE. 37 To you our thanks no less we owe, ' For having spent a week or so In learn'd harangues, to sink below Their present state, your wages : Declared such act was naught but fair ; But on the final vote took care They should continue as they were, Oh, wise, consistent sages. In August, 1821, the proprietors of the Cincinnati Theater offered "a silver ticket for one year's freedom of the Theater," for the best poetical address, to be spoken as a prologue at the opening of the Theater, which was expected to take place in Octo- ber, but did not occur till November nineteenth. " Horace in Cincinnati " was the success- ful author. The following are the closing lines of his address. We doubt whether their spirit has since been always observed : Friends of our infant stage ! who here resort, To whom our Drama looks for its support. Whose lib'ral aid this classic dome has reared, Whose constant zeal our every hope has cheered, On whose superior judgment and applause Depends the final triumph of our cause ; If e'er some foolish fashion of the day From nature's path should lead our steps astray ; If honor's voice we ever strive to hush, Or o'er the maiden's cheek diffuse a blush ; If ever poor neglected worth we scorn, Or crouch to those with empty honors born ; — Oh, give us not your sanction ! but dismiss The play and players with th' indignant hiss. — Thus may the Stage present to public view A school for morals, and for letters too ; Where native genius may expand its powers, And strew your paths with intellectual flowers. Mr. Peirce seemed to take pleasure in metrical composition for occasions like that just referred to. He wrote an " Ode on Science " for an " extra night" at the Western Museum in Cincinnati ; and when, in 1822, the proprietors of the New Theater " in Philadelphia offered a silver cup for the best poem, to be delivered at the opening of their " dramatic temple," he was a competitor. The prize was awarded to Charles Sprague, but Mr. Peirce's ode was adjudged " second best." It was pubKshed in the Cincinnati National Republican, April eighteenth, 1823. The lines on "The Drama," hereafter quoted, are from it. In 1824 and 1825, Mr. Peirce was a frequent contributor to the Literary Gazette, published and edited by John P. Foote. Besides original poems, he prepared for the Gazette several successful translations from the French of Boileau, and from the Span- ish of Yasquez. In 1825 he wrote a second series of satirical poems, which he pub- lished in the National Republican. They were entitled " Billy Moody," and professed to recount the education and varied experience of a Yankee, who taught school in the East, and then wandered to the West as a peddler and an ofBce-seeker. These poems were also published in a volume, but are not of sufficient general interest to be quoted