Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1858-04-15

Vermont Poetry.
The Pen, the Pen! It is mightier far
Than the instrument of war
Swords and sceptres pass away,
While the PEN shall live for aye
Rmpres plunged in blood and ruin,
Sow the seeds of their undoing;
Kingdoms rent with mortal woe,
Bow beneath outnumb'rng foe;
Monarchs, actors of an hour,
Reign awhile in pride and power,
But all will pass alike away,
While the PEN shall live for aye!
Leisure Moments.
was truly well pleased to learn that we were
to have book of Vermont Poetry" contain
ing the productions of the sons and daughters
OF our beloved State-not that there is percep-
tible deficiency in this department of literature,
but comprising, as it will, the efforts of poetical
writers, from the earliest dawn of authorship in
Vermont, until the present time, it will be
work that every lover of poetry will doubtless
be pleased to possess.
There's many mind that's doomed to toll and strive,
Ere in the worlds glad favor it can live;
And we may add there are many commendable
efforts, many gem of beauty
Of purest ray serene;
many thought,
That's traced to glow and burn,
that after pleasing the mind for awhile, would
pass from memory, that in this form will find a
niche, from which they can breathe their accents
of hope and love to coming generations.
Vermont is not wholly deficient in the elements
of Poetry. She may not indeed boast of the
broad, swelling prairies of the West, nor the
more classic climes of the South yet
Where shines the sun with brighter hue
Where bend the skies with deeper blue
Where tower the hills with grandeur higher
Or rest the wales that WE admire!
Although bound for a heightened period by
the icy fetters Of Winter, this makes but keener
the relish for the unnumbered beauties offspring
and Summer; and what land then boasts of
more glorious array than the &c Green Mountain
State?" And her SONS and daughters know
well how to appreciate these beauties. They
are no effeminate race, diminutve alike in power
OF body and mind but " Natures noblemen,"
rejoicing in the good gifts of benefcent Crea-
tor.
Each hill and vale, lake and river, field and
forest, are but pages from the great book, from
which they daily read, and is it strange, then,
that from hillside and valley echo strains of
sweetness and simplicity?
We may not have an Addison or Milton, a
Whittier or Longfellow, Hcmans or Sigourney
but we have others, those who will do no dis
credit to the great art of Poesy.
1t will be with much pleasure that we shall
welcome these gems of poetry, collected from
the green hills and wales of Vermont, from him
whom Thompson styles her first poet, to the au-
thor of Eighteen Hundred Fifty-Fight," Ver-
mont is not destitute of literary distinction !;
she has acquired reputation in this direction,
that is no mere work of chance, and we sincerely
hope this repntationmay be sacredly maintained;
that her writer's may not pander to the vitiated
taste of too large portion of the reading COM
munity, but still continue to furnish those pure
and simple strains for the mind taht exalt man
not debaso him, and they will accomplish the
desired end.
The authoress who has originated the design
of collecting in form, and presenting to the
reading community, "a work of Vermont Poetry,
has undertaken heavy task, but a laudable
one, and one that is bound to succeed.
May she receive that generous aid and encour-
agement, from the people of our State, that the
merits of the subject demand, and in the end re-
ceive due reward for her labors.
E. r. TowLE.
East Franklin, 1858.