THE RECLUSE
In these good times, with little pains,
And scarce a penny-worth of brains,
A man with great propriety—
With some small risk of being hung—
May cut a pretty dash among
The foremost in society.
Another Vermont poet—Selleck Osborn (born 1783; died 1826), about whom very little is known, but whose “Poems”, published in 1823, are mainly of this epoch—should here receive passing mention. He wrote, under the pseudonym of “Lorenzo” in the Hartford Mercury, and other papers, and his verse, like Fessenden’s, is of unusual interest and quality.
And Anthony Haswell (1756–1816) should also receive honorable mention. The Vermont Gazette, established by him at Bennington, June, 1783, was the most powerful newspaper in Vermont for many years, and his ballads are among the best of that early period.
(See John Spargo’s fine monograph, “Anthony Haswell, Printer, Patriot, Ballader”).
Thus we bring to a close the remarkable opening epoch of Early Vermont Minstrelsy. It was distinguished for the freshness and vigor of its spirit, and for the spontaneity and originality of its expression, as evidenced in the works of Rowley, Niles, Tyler and his Guilford School, and by the odes of Arnold and the humorous satires and characterizations of Fessenden.
The next epoch (extending roughly from 1812 to 1860) will exhibit the fruits of this pioneer era as brought forth in the no less remarkable outburst of song, in various parts of the state, before the dark clouds of civil war obscured the vision and quenched the spirit of our Green Mountain minstrelsy. Tyler and his “school” furnished a fit ground of preparation for the three major singers and the many secondary bards who are to distinguish this opening period. Eastman, Saxe and Lynch-Botta were to be worthy successors of the “Guilford School.”
TO ROYALL TYLER
James Elliot, Guilford
Oh, thou! my early and my constant friend;
In thee the fruits of early knowledge shine;
In thee the graces and the virtues blend—
A soul sincere, a feeling heart, are thine.
In thee has nature various powers displayed:
Art, eloquence and taste, alike to grace
The bar, the senate or the studious shade—
To wield the sword or tread the walks of peace.
On thee long may the rays of science fall,
And in thy life and writings greatly glow:
Long be thy useful life—and thine be all
The bliss that conscious virtue can bestow.
Be thine throughout life’s variegated year
The meed of genius and the poet’s bays;
And in thy autumn may bright suns appear
To gild the happy winter of thy days!
