McDonald Clarke

thumb|right|200px|Tis vain for present fame to wish--Our persons first must be forgotten;For poets are like stinking fish--They never shine until they're rotten. McDonald Clarke (1798 – 1842) was a poet of some fame in New York in the early part of the 19th century. Quotes Whilst twilight's curtain spreading far,Was pinned with a single star. Death in Disguise (Boston edition, 1833), line 227. A number of variants are reported: While twilight's curtain gathering farIs pinned with a single diamond star. Now twilight lets her curtain down,And pins it with a star. Compare: "And drew my midnight curtain with fingers bloody red", Thomas Hood, Dream of Eugene Aram; "The moon is a silver pinhead vast, That holds the heavens tent-hangings fast", William R. Alger, "The Use of the Moon", Poetry of the Orient (1865), p. 178. Tis vain for present fame to wish--Our persons first must be forgotten;For poets are like stinking fish--They never shine until they're rotten. The Elixir of Moonshine (1820). Ha! see where the wild-blazing Grog-shop appears,As the red waves of wretchedness swell;How it burns on the edge of tempestuous years— The horrible Light-house of Hell! The Rum-hole, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919). External links Category:Poets from the United States Category:People from Maine Category:1798 births Category:1842 deaths Category:19th-century poets from the United States