James Gates Percival

thumb|James Gates Percival James Gates Percival (September 15, 1795 – May 2, 1856) was an American poet, born at Berlin, Connecticut. Quotes Theirs is no vulgar sepulchre--green sodsAre all their monument, and yet it tellsA nobler history than pillared pilesOr the eternal pyramids. "The Graves of the Patriots," first published in the United States Literary Gazette, Vol. 2 (1825). Hail to the land whereon we tread,Our fondest boast! The sepulchres of mighty dead,The truest hearts that ever bled,Who sleep on glory’s brightest bed, A fearless host:No slave is here:—our unchained feet,Walk freely as the waves that beatOur coast. New England, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919). On thy fair bosom, silver lake, The wild swan spreads his snowy sail,And round his breast the ripples break As down he bears before the gale. To Seneca Lake, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919). The water is calm and still below, For the winds and waves are absent there,And the sands are bright as the stars that glow In the motionless fields of upper air. The coral Grove, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919). Quotes about James Gates Percival Percival, the most popular poet before Bryant, a poet who made the first attempt in our history to write the meeting-place between the kind of experience which may be called scientific, and poetry, is ignored. More than ignored: he is referred to in all the anthologies as a one-poem poet, and then a poor imitative poem, "The Coral Grove," is printed. Muriel Rukeyser The Life of Poetry (1949) External links Category:19th-century poets from the United States Category:People from Connecticut Category:1856 deaths