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• 1 2019-02-20T19:57:17-08:00 "Twilight" by Fitzgreen Halleck 29 plain 2019-03-20T18:48:53-07:00

  Transcription of the Poem           Twilight There is an evening twilight of the heart,         When its wild passion-waves are lull’d           to rest   And the eye sees life’s fairy scenes depart,       As fades the daybeam in the rosy west.           Tis with a nameless feeling of regret    We gaze upon them as they melt away And fondly would we bid them linger yet,       But Hope is round us with her angel lay,          Waiting after some happier moonlight hour,    Dear are her whispers still, though lost           their early power.                     In youth the cheek was crimsoned with            her glow          Her smile was loveliest then, her matin            song     Was heaven’s own music, & the note of wo     Was all unheard her sunny bowers            among. Life’s little world of bliss was newly born        We knew not, cared not, it was born to die.      Flush’d with the cool breeze and the dews of morn      With dancing heart we gazed on the pure sky  And mocked the passing clouds that dimm’d its            blue,    Like our own sorrows then as fleeting & as few           And manhood felt her sway too—on the eye   Half realized her early dreams burst bright,      Her promised bower of happiness seem’d nigh,           Its days of joy, its vigils of delight,      And tho’ at times might lower the thunderstorms         And the red lightnings threaten; still the air      Was balmy with her breath, and her lov’d form           The rainbow of the heart was hov'ring there   ’Tis in life’s noontide she is nearest seen          Her wreath the summer flower her robe the            summer green.             But tho’ less dazzling in her twilight dress        There’s more of Heaven’s pure beam about her            now     That angel smile of tranquil loveliness Which the heart worships glowing on her brow          That smile shall brighten the dim evening            star       That points our destined tomb, nor e’er            depart  ‘Till the faint light of life is fled afar,   And hush’d the last deep beating of            the heart;          The meteor-bearer of our parting            breath, A moonbeam in the midnight            cloud of death.                Fitzgreen Halleck.

  Information About this Poem Biography of Fitz-Greene Halleck Formal Elements of the Poem Explication of the Poem

• 1 2019-03-20T18:39:54-07:00 Biography of Fitz-Greene Halleck 6 plain 2019-03-20T19:12:16-07:00
            Fitz-Greene Halleck was born on July 8, 1790, in Guilford, Connecticut. The descendant of a long line of Americans dating back to the pilgrims, he was a prominent poet and essayist, heavily influenced by Scottish and English Romantic poets with a particular fondness for Byron. When he was 21 years old, he moved to New York City and worked in various banks, writing primarily as a pastime. During this time, he found work as the personal secretary of philanthropist John Jacob Astor. Halleck was eventually made an original trustee for the Astor Library, which would later become the foundation for the New York Public Library.
  
            Though his writing was principally recreational, Halleck contributed (along with his close personal friend Joseph Rodman Drake) the satirical “Croaker Papers” to the New York Evening Post in 1819. His other works, such as “Alnwick Castle,” “Burns,” “Marco Bozzaris,” “Red Jacket,” and “Young America” were also popular favorites of the time, with his poems being frequently recited in classrooms.
  
            An active member of the Knickerbocker group, which was a loose and somewhat indistinct group of writers, Halleck was known for his satirical and romantic verses. His love of Byron led to him being partially regarded as the American Byron. His poems have been explored for their underlying homosexual themes and it has been speculated that Halleck himself was homosexual, with comparisons being drawn to Walt Whitman’s poetry. He never married and returned to Guilford in 1849 where he lived with his sister until his death in 1867. Halleck’s will instructed that Joseph Rodman Drake, who had died many years earlier from tuberculosis, be disinterred and buried with him. Halleck is the only American writer honored in Central Park’s Literary Walk; President Rutherford B. Hayes dedicated his memorial there in 1877 before a crowd of 10,000 people.
  
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