# Poems (Holmes)

POEMS.
POEMS.
BY.
ALICE HOLMES.
NEW.YORK:
JOHN F. TROW, PRINTER, 49 & 51 ANN-STREET.
1849.
THESE POEMS
ARE RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED
TO THE
MANAGERS
OF THE
New-York Institution
FOR THE BLIND.
PREFACE.
The following collection of Poems is a simple offering to friendship, claiming nothing on the score of literary or poetic merit, and owing its appearance before the public solely on the one hand to the solicitations of friends, whose kindly feelings have rendered them a little blind to its imperfections, and on the other to the sincere desire of the writer, to render some small return to those who have done much by word and by deed, to dispel the gloom that oft hangs with a heavier pall upon the heart, than even the veiled eye that knows no sunshine can feel; and who have smoothed that rugged path where no light guides the weary feet.
Perhaps the only interest attached to the Poems, consists in the peculiar circumstances in the life of the writer. She is blind:
To those who sympathize with the stricken, and do not despise the humble efforts of a spirit seeking to beguile the hours of its own solitude,
the following brief narrative may not be unacceptable.
Alice Holmes, the author of this little volume, was born in the County of Norfolk, England, in February of the year 1821. Her father, a worthy mechanic, supported a growing family by his daily industry, until, moved by the spirit of emigration, and the hopes of improving his fortunes in the new world, in April of the year 1830, he embarked with his family and worldly goods for the United States.
To the dreariness of a long and weary voyage, was added the horrors of disease,—the small-pox made its appearance among the passengers, and among its victims, though not of those who were consigned to the deep, was the little Alice, then in her ninth year.
On the 19th of June following, the emigrant ship arrived off quarantine in the bay of New-York. The fell disease was still upon Alice, but the New World, the land ​of promise, of which she bad heard so oft in the long evenings by their English fireside, and which had filled all their thoughts and all their hopes, and which now broke first upon her vision, left an abiding image of beauty,—it was her first and last view of the sunlight on this side the water.
She was taken to the Hospital, with little hope of recovery, and when medical skill had restored the health of the body it was found that she was blind.
Her parents then removed to Jersey City, where Alice now dwells.
In January of the year 1837, through the munificence of a gentleman of Jersey City, Alice became an inmate of the "New-York Institution for the Blind," the kind friend above alluded to defraying the costs of her tuition. Subsequently, in 1838, the Legislature of New Jersey made an annual appropriation for the benefit of a limited number of pupils, who should wish to enter the New-York In stution, there being no asylum for the blind in the State of New Jersey. Alice was thus enabled to remain five years longer as a State pupil, at her new home, where she gained valuable friends, and a competent knowledge of all the branches of an English education there taught.
Of the kindness and treasured instructions of those connected with and having charge of the Institution, she desires to express her grateful remembrance.
She cannot omit kindly mention of Silas Jones, Esq., Superintendent of the Institution, and his successor, Dr. Peter D. Vroom, now of Jersey City; also Mr. William Boggs, ​Principal Teacher, afterwards Superintendent of the Bloomingdale Lunatic Asylum; Miss Frances J. Crosby, and Miss Cynthia Bullock, well known for many beautiful contributions to the poetry of the day, Miss Ann Smith, Miss Josephine Mariuse, and Miss Catharine Kennedy.
Those who know not the affliction of blindness, and the sweet counsels of sympathizing friends, cannot conceive the bitter pang with which Alice bade adieu to the Institution and the companions of near seven years' communion; for she was a stranger in her own home, and felt that her path was thenceforth darker and more rugged. She had been passing a pleasant period of life, with every want provided for, and every taste gratified; she was now to enter upon life's realities, and make her way by the force of her own character. By means of plain sewing, and other handiwork, she has been enabled to gain a precarious livelihood. To poetry she only turned as a solace in her darker hour, directed thereto by a friend, an admirer and cultivator of the art, Miss Jean L. Bruce, then of Jersey City.
To the tender care of friends she commends her little book, and the story of her life, trusting that its unpretending character will prove a protection from the pen of criticism, and a good intention atone for many faults.
Jersey City, October, 1849.
CONTENTS.
This work was published before January 1, 1929, and is in the public domain worldwide because the author died at least 100 years ago.
Public domainPublic domainfalsefalse