Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1888-12-01
ORIGIN OF FAMOUS POEMS.

Gray's immortal 'EIegy" occupied him fol
so7en years.
Bryant wrote "Thanatopsisn in the shade
Of grand old forest-a fitting spot forsuch
q theme.
Cowper wrote one of the drollest and
quaintest English ballads, John Glpin's
Ride, when he was under one of those terri
BILE fits of depression SO common to him.
Gen. Lyle wrote his beautiful composition
Antony and Cleopatra" which begins,
II am dying, Egypt, dying" on the night
before his death. He had apremonition that
he was going to die the next day.
The noted poem THE Falls of Niagara
was written by it's author, j. G. c. Brainard,
the editor of small paper in Connecticut in
fifteen minutes. He wrote it under pressure
in response to a call for more copy"
"After the Ball. the little poem which
made the name of Nora Perry known in the
world of letters, was jotted down on the back
of an old letter, with no idea of the popular
ity it was to achieve in the pages of noted
magazine
Thomas Moore, while writing sLalla
Rookh, spent SO many months in reading up
oiCSh Ai4u e1S idH "OI ho tLstt Lt UctGI4lc ttil
accomplished Oriental scholar, and people
found 1t difficult to believe that its scenes
were not penned on the spot instead of in a
retired dwelling in Derbyshire.
Poe first thought of "The Bells when
walking the streets of Baltimore on a win
ter's night He rang the bell of lawyers
house IA stranger TO HIM, walked into the
gentleman's library, shut hi,nself up and the
next morning presented the lawyer with a
copy of his celebrated poem.
The "Old Oaken Bucket" was first sug-
gested to the author, Samuel Woodwork, in
bar room. A friend with whom ne was
drinking said that when they were boys the
old oaken bucket that hung in his fathers
well was good enough for them to drink
from. Woodwork Immediately went home
and wrote the famous poem.
''Old Grimes" that familiar 'rittle felicity
in verse;" which caught the popular fancy
as far back as 1923, was a sudden inspiration
OF the late Judge Albert G. Greene, of Provi-
dence, r. l., who found the first verse in
collection of old English ballads, and, enjoy
ing its humor built UP the remainder of the
poem in the same conceit.
1t is now definitely settled that the roman
tic incidents narrated in Whittier's Barbara
Frltchie" had little foundation in fact, but
that the story chiefly emanated from the
fertile brain Of the popular novelist, Mrs E.
ID. N. Southworth, is not generally known
That such was the case, however, we have
MIR. Whittiers own assurance.
The verses which lifted Brete Harte into
notice were carelessly written, and thrown
into drawer of his editorial desk in San
Francisco as unworthy Of publication. One
day, in search of copy" for the magazine be
was then editing, he found the forgotten
lines, which, as 1.-The Heather Chinee," made
one Of the most remarkable hits in American
literature.
Wordsworth wrote eve Are Seven back
ward. When he had finished all but the first
stanza, Coleridge, whom he was visiting, tod
him to go in and get his tea and he would
finish it. Coleridge did SO. The idea
of the dead men pulling the ropes
in the Ancient Mariner" which would Seem
more like Coleridge than Wordsworth, was
nevertheless suggested by the latter.