American poet, born in Boston, on the 26th of October 1791, his father having been one of the party that threw the tea into Boston harbor. The boy was educated at Boston, and at the age of ten, through an accident, lost the sight of his left eye. At the age of thirteen he entered a mercantile house as clerk, and in 1816 became a partner. In 1820 he became teller in the State bank, and, on the establishment of the Globe bank, in 1825, he was appointed cashier, and held the office till 1865, when he withdrew from active life. He early manifested a taste for poetry, and for many years devoted his spare time to the study of the old English classics. Public notice was first drawn to him as a poet by his winning the first prize for the best prologue on the opening of the Park theatre, New York, and he achieved similar success at the opening of theatres at Philadelphia, Salem, and Portsmouth. In 1823 he won the first prize for the best “Shakespeare Ode,” which was recited in the Boston theatre. In 1829 he delivered at Cambridge before the Phi Beta Kappa Society of Harvard a poem on “Curiosity” which has been considered his best production. In 1830 he pronounced the centennial ode at Boston on the 200th anniversary of the settlement of the city. Of his productions Edwin P. Whipple says: “His prologues are the best that have been written since the time of Pope. His ‘Shakespeare Ode’ has hardly been excelled by anything in the same manner since Gray’s ‘Progress of Poesy.’ But the true power and originality of the man are manifested in his domestic pieces. ‘The Brothers,’ ‘I see thee still,’ and the ‘Family Meeting’ are the finest consecrations of natural affections in our literature.” His Prose and Poetical Writings appeared at Boston in 1850, and other editions followed in 1855 and 1876. He died at Boston, on the 14th of January 1875. See also Literary Criticism.
