Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1888-05-27

retiring nature. She has studiously
avoided publicity, and her friends, whit
have ever regarded her IS human sensi-
tive plant, have deferred to her wishes
and let her work alone speak for itself
She is poet by the divine right Of
genius, and the world from the first fell
and owned her power as such
The consolation and soul-happiness
which she has given to others
have endeared her to all Low.
ers OF English verse, while the impartial
verdict of the best literary Judges have
declared her q teacher called by q voice
higher than mere personal or subj active
feeling to write for the good Of others
An editor of the first literary rank thus
"smites her friendly and reproves her."
"I have none Of the endowments or helps
that Miss Proctor has received. She will
not deem me impairment in saying, that
it seems to me that her mission in life is
that OF poet; that she has the best
fame and influence ofsny American female
poet Immediately within her reach. Ought
she not now to cas- her coin OF these
gifts into the treasury of the Lord? 1t Is
indeed q high privilege to be able to live
in the thought and affections CT others
ana to rightly influence those whose ex-
istence is beyond our view Of knowledge,
aTd SOW the seeds of haryests for the re :
warding world that awaits us. The pull
pit cannot honor Christ like the pen. 1t
seems to me that Gods guideboard OF
life must now direct her to His special
mission"
That Miss Proctor, by her writings,
does indeed live in the thoughts and al
fections Of many who have never seen
her, and whom she has never seen, is at
tested by countless letters she has re-
ceived from strangers, both among her
own countrymen and foreigners.
When her poem, 80 Loved and Lost"
was published, it brought wealth OF
garlsnds to her feet, as had done her
beautiful "Heaven, Oh, Lord, 1 Cannot
Lose!" and men and women's hearts
were in the tributes they paid her. But
not from strangers and mere readers only
have tributes come.
John Greenleaf Whittier, who is dear
friend OF Miss Proctor's, said of her
poem, "New Hampshire" that it was one
or the grandest produced in this country.
Mr. Whittier, on one occasion, in speak.
ing Of her as poet, referred with much
esrnestness to poem Of hers, "By the
Shenandoah" which he could not re-,
member by name at the moment, but
which he described as ole in which an
old father laments the desolstion of his
household in the Shenandoah Valley, one
Of his SONS having gone into the federal
and another-or the other-into the Con-
federate service, and then said he thought
her poems had greater strength and
loftier snd higher order of merit than
those of any other American female
writer.
In one of Mr.. Writers letters to q
friend, he speaks of having heard read
Miss Proctor's poem, 80 Loved and
Lost" and says: "How sweet, tender
and lovely, the poem Isl All our hearts
were touched BY 1t. 1t is poem full Of
power and pathos, yet its shadows are
radiant with holy hope. have read it
over and over with deep interest and
sympathy, and have found comfort and
strength in IT."
Some years ago, the gentle Quaker
poet, in speaking of Miss Proctor's poem,
on "Burns," said IL was $50 good, so
true, SO tender, yet 80 strong of thought,
that he hoped the bard himself in his new
life might read it."
Her lsmented friend and fellow poet
Of New England, Henry Wadsworth
used many Of her poems in
his "Poems of Places" A year later, he
expressed regret in not having her poem
on PRUSSIA" in his book, saying: "It
would have been splendid prelude to
the volume"
Mr.. Longfellow greatly admired Miss
Prector's "Russian Journey as hook oE'
interest. The original poe
which proceeds each chapter, stirs Ne
heart like the sound Of . trumpet. Il.
strikes one ut first sight as strange theS'
the greatest female poetin America, whose
tongue had become first famous in
''sounding the battle CRY Of freedoms