The Power of the Passions and other Poems was a 19th-century poetry collection written by Katharine Augusta Ware, and published in New York City and London. [1]
A few months before she died, Ware published, in London, a selection from her writings, under the title of The Power of the Passions and other Poems. The composition from which the volume has its principal title was originally printed in The Knickerbocker , for April in the same year. In his The Female Poets of America, Griswold remarks that this, though the longest, is scarcely the best of her productions, but it has passages of consider able strength and boldness, and some felicities of expression. She describes a public dancer, as: [2]
Moving as if her element were air,
And music was the echo of her step;
and there are many other lines noticeable for a picturesque beauty or a fine cadence. In other poems, also, are parts which are much superior to their contexts, as if written in moments of inspiration, and added to in laborious leisure: as the following, from The Diamond Island, which refers to a beautiful place in Lake George: [2]
How sweet to stray along thy flowery shore,
Where crystals sparkle in the sunny ray;
While the red boatman plies his silvery oar
To the wild measure of some rustic lay!
and these lines, from an allusion to Athens: [2]
Views the broad stadium where the gymnic art
Nerved the young arm and energized the heart.
or this apostrophe to sculpture, from "Musings in St. James's Cemetery": [2]
Sculpture, oh, what a triumph o'er the grave
Hath thy proud art! thy powerful hand can save
From the destroyer's grasp the noble form,
As if the spirit dwelt, still thrilling, warm,
In every line and feature of the face,
The air majestic, and the simple grace
Of flowing robes, which shade, but not conceal,
All that the classic chisel would reveal.
These inequalities are characteristic of the larger number of Ware's poems, but there are in her works some pieces marked by a sustained elegance, and deserving of praise for their fancy and feeling as well as for an artist-like finish. [2]
Dr. John Armstrong (1709–1779) was a physician, poet, and satirist. He was born at Castleton Manse, the son of Robert Armstrong, minister of Castleton, Roxburghshire, Scotland John studied medicine and gained his MD at the renowned University of Edinburgh before establishing a successful medical practice in London.
Louise Chandler Moulton was an American poet, story-writer and critic. Contributing poems and stories of power and grace to the leading magazines, Harper's Magazine, The Atlantic, The Galaxy, the first Scribner's, she also published a half-dozen very successful books for children, Bedtime Stories, Firelight Stories, Stories Told at Twilight, and others that were considered popular in their day. She collected a few of her many adult tales into volumes, Miss Eyre of Boston and Some Women's Hearts. It is in Boston that she did the greater part of her work, including her books of travel, Random Rambles and Lazy Tours, published her four volumes of poetry, and edited and prefaced biographies, A Last Harvest and Garden Secrets, and the Collected Poems of Philip Bourke Marston, as well as a selection from Arthur O'Shaughnessy's verses.
Frances Harriet Whipple Green McDougall (1805–1878) was an abolitionist, poet, novelist, editor, botanist, spiritualist medium, and advocate of women's, voters', and workers' rights. In contrast to many other 19th-century women writers, throughout most of her adult life she earned her living as an author; at the same time she often donated her writing for causes she believed in, such as the abolition of slavery.
Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature.
Mary Elizabeth Hewitt was an American poet and editor who flourished in the 1840s and 1850s. She published: Memorial of F. S. Osgood; Songs of Our Lord; Heroines of History; and Poems Sacred, Passionate, and Legendary.
Hannah Flagg Gould was a 19th-century American poet. Her father had been a soldier in the American Revolutionary War, and after her mother's death, she became his constant companion, which accounts for the patriotism of her earlier verses. Gould's poems were short, but they were frequently nearly perfect in their kind. Nearly all of them appeared originally in annuals, magazines, and other miscellanies, and their popularity was shown by the subsequent sale of several collective editions. Her work exercised a helpful influence in its day, but lacked staying qualities. The high-water mark of her verse was reached in the poem entitled "A Name in the Sand".
Eliza Lee Cabot Follen was an American writer, editor, and abolitionist. In her early life, she contributed various pieces of prose and poetry to papers and magazines. In 1828, she married Prof. Charles Follen, who died on board the Lexington in 1840. During her married life, she published a variety of popular and useful books, all of which were characterized by her Christian piety. Among the works she gave to the press are, Selections from Fénelon, The Well-spent Hour, Words of Truth, The Sceptic, Married Life, Little Songs, Poems, Life of Charles Follen, Twilight Stories, Second Series of Little Songs, as well as a compilation of Home Dramas, and German Fairy Tales. Holding an interest in the religious instruction of the young, she edited, in 1829, the Christian Teacher's Manual, and, from 1843 to 1850, the Child's Friend. She died in Brookline, Massachusetts in 1860.
Estelle Anna Lewis was a 19th-century American poet and dramatist. After marriage, she started using pen names, including "Estelle", "Stella", and "Stells".
Louisa Jane Hall was an American poet, essayist, and literary critic. None of her poems appeared in print until after she was twenty; they were then published anonymously in the Literary Gazette, and other periodicals. Miriam, a Dramatic Sketch, her most notable work, was begun in the summer of 1826, finished the following summer, and published ten years later. Her other principal work is in prose, Joanna of Naples, an Historical Tale, published in 1838. Hannah, the Mother of Samuel the Prophet and Judge of Israel (1839) was, like Miriam, a verse play. She and her father moved to Worcester, Massachusetts, in 1831, and they lived together until October 1840, when she married the Rev. E. B. Hall, of Providence, Rhode Island.
Maria James was a Welsh-born American poet and domestic servant. Her poetry includes Ode on the Fourth of July 1833. As a child, she emigrated with her family from Wales to New York. She would spend most of her life in this state.
Cynthia Taggart (1801/04–1849) was a 19th-century American poet. A chronic invalid, she lived with unceasing pain, from her early infancy, during the period of her adolescence, and through the duration of her life. Physical anguish was a repetitive theme in Taggart's poems. She died in 1849.
Eliza Townsend was a 19th-century American poet who wrote anonymously. She was the first native woman poet whose writings commanded the applause of judicious critics; the first whose poems evinced any real inspiration, or rose from the merely mechanical into the domain of art. Nicholas Biddle said that a prize ode which Townsend wrote for The Port Folio while he was editor of it was in his opinion the finest poem of its kind which at that time had been written in the United States. Many of her other pieces received the best approval of the period, but, as she kept her authorship a secret, it did not enhance her personal reputation. In much of her work, there was a religious and poetical dignity, with all the evidences of a fine and richly-cultivated understanding, which entitled her to be ranked among the distinguished literary women who were her contemporaries. Townsend died in 1854.
Susan Archer Weiss was an American poet. Losing her hearing as a child, she rarely mingled in society beyond a select circle of friends, finding her happiness in her home. Her life was essentially that of a poet, though she also painted. In September 1859, a collection of her poems was issued by Rudd & Carlton, of New York City. Her name was included among those of young writers in American Female Poets, Sarah Josepha Hale's Woman's Record, and other similar works. Weiss was a friend of Edgar Allan Poe. She died in 1917.
A. Flowerdew was an English teacher, religious poet and hymnist. Her main work was Poems on Moral and Religious Subjects (1867). She died in 1830.
Lavinia Stoddard was an American poet and school founder. Her poem, "The Soul's Defiance", was included in most of the anthologies published in the United States in the 19th century.
Catharine H. Waterman was an American writer and poet who contributed to the periodical literature. Her publications included books, edited volumes, as well as hymns.
E. J. Eames was a 19th-century American writer of prose and poetry. She was a regular contributor to Horace Greeley's New Yorker for some years before her marriage ; and thereafter, her writings frequently appeared in Graham's Magazine, the Southern Literary Messenger, and later still, in The Columbian.
Margaret L. Bailey was an American anti-slavery writer, poet, lyricist, as well as newspaper editor and publisher. She served as editor of The Youth's Monthly Visitor, a children's magazine, and as the publisher of The National Era, an anti-slavery journal.
Sarah S. Jacobs (1813–1902) was an American writer and chief record clerk in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Katharine Augusta Ware (1797–1813) was a 19th-century American poet and the editor of the Boston-based literary periodical, Bower of Taste. A selection from her writings, under the title of The Power of the Passions and other Poems, was published in London in 1842.