The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1911-04-23
STORIES OF FAMOUS POEMS

]. T. TROWBRIDGE.

II ever there lived a Yankee lad,
Wise otherwise. good or bad.
Who seeing the birds fly, didn't jump
With tapping arms from stake or stump,
Or. spreading the tail
OF his coat for a sail,
Take q soaring leap from post to rail,
And wonder why
He couldn't fly,
And flap and futter and wish and Try;
II ever YOU knew a country Ounce
Who didn't Try that often once.
All can say is. that's sign
He never would do for hero OF mine.
An aspiring genius was D. Green
The son Of q farmer. aged fourteen.
His bedy was long and lank and lean
Just right for flying. will be seen.
He had two eyes bright bean,
And a freckled nose that grew between,
little aWry, for ! must mention
That he had TiTeted his attention
Upon his wonderful invention.
Twisting his tongue he twisted the strings,
And working his face as he worked the wings,
And with every turn Of gimlet and screw
Turning and scTewing his mouth round, too.
Till his seemed bent
To catch the scent.
Around some corner. of neW,baked pies.
And his wrinkled cheeks and his squirting eyes
Grew puckered into queer grmace
That made him lock very dron in the face,
And also very wise
The birds can fly,
An why can't /!
Must give inG''
Says he with a grin.
a. T the bluebird an Phoebe
Are smartern We be?
Jest fold hands an see the swaller
An blackbird an catbird beat us holler.
Does the leetle, chatterin' sassy wren
No biggern' my thumb, know more than menf
The season for aviation activity Is rap
idly approaching, and the interest in fly
Ing promises to be intense this summer.
The man. bird has become so general
that lie is no longer an object of wonder,
but instead attracts attention through
his marvellous daring and his success in
navigating the air.
More than forty years ago John T.
Trowbridge convulsed the public with
his tale in rhyme of the adventures of
Darius Green and His Flying Machine"
AS this poem is entirely too long to pre-
sent here complete, the best of its lines
are given above, and they are so ar
ranged as to connect the different argu-
ments. periods of fight, and the finish of
the ''man-bird' evolved in the mind of
the poet half century ago.
While Mr.. Trowbridge's poem is far
from elegance in verse, yet it shows such
an evidence of genius on the part of it's
author at description in rhyme that 1t
has stood a long test of popularity, and
has helped more to the fame of Mr..
Trowbridge than anything else from his
pen. 1t has been an especial favorite
with the elocutionists as well as the vii
lage "reciter," who never fails in effect
in its declaiming. and particularly so If
able to mimic the whimpering tone of
the hero of the air.
Trowbridge is now eighty-four years
old, and no one takes a keener interest
In the development of aeronautics than
the author of Darius Green and His
Flying Machine" He has at last seen
his poetic dream Of forty years ago
realized.
In speaking Of the activity in the flying
machine. Mr.. Trowbridge recently said:
II never dreamed when I wrote that
poem that such thing as flying ma
chine was even a possibility in my life
time. I am afraid I took advantage of
my poetic license when I made what lit
tie OF prophecy did make in. the poem,
for. frankly, / had no idea then that
men would ever fly, through the air.
Mr.. Trowbri1ge recently was asked re-
garding the origin Of Darius Green"
and his version Is somewhat as follows:
THE idea OF the poem was suggested
to me by an anecdote which may have
been founded on fact, but was probably
fiction, of body aviator who tried his
wings. and replied. after his fall, to those
who asked how he liked 1t. that he liked
the flying. but darn the lighting part.
The entire action was invented and writ
ten up to this point in great glee and
with hardly any conscious effort on my
part.
"The story was told me by one Of the
publishers Of Our Young Folks, with
which was connected editoriaily. who
thought might make something out of
II for that magazine. / chose verse for
the vehicle. and It appeared In the next