THE INTRODUCTION to the “Poetry of the East,” published by William Rounseville Alger in 1856, made it possible for American readers to suspect in advance of the general circulation of Fitzgerald’s translation of Omar Khayyam something of the extraordinary quality of Persian poetry. Fitzgerald’s masterpiece, first published in 1859, did not achieve its greatest popularity until nearly twenty years later. As a poet, Fitzgerald is much Alger’s superior, but those who think, as many have done, that they are more indebted to the modern Caucasian than to the Persian spirit for the distinctive quality of Fitzgerald’s work will find material in Alger’s versions of Persian lyric poetry for correcting their opinions. It shows insight which is rarely found in like measure in classical poets later than Homer, and, in spite of its extravagances, it is likely to do much for the poetry of the twentieth century, especially in redeeming it from the matter-of-fact quality of intellect incident to an age of criticism.

  Alger was born at Freetown, Massachusetts, December 30th, 1822. Besides his works on Oriental Poetry, he published “The Friendships of Women,” etc. He was by profession a Unitarian clergyman.