RICHARD WATSON GILDER. Works. The Poems of. Household Edition. 1908. These appeared in book form originally as follows: The New Day, 1875; The Celestial Passion, 1878; Lyrics, 1878; The Poet and his Master, and Other Poems, 1878; Two Worlds, and Other Poems, 1891; Great Remembrance, and Other Poems, 1893; For the Country, 1897; In Palestine and Other Poems, 1898; Poems and Inscriptions, 1901; A Christmas Wreath, 1903; In the Heights, 1905; A Book of Music, 1906; Fire Divine, 1907; Lincoln the Leader, 1909; Grover Cleveland, 1910. =Collection= STEDMAN and HUTCHINSON. Library of American Literature, Vol. X, pp. 252-259. =Biography= Letters of Richard Watson Gilder. Rosamond Gilder, editor. 1906. TOPICS AND PROBLEMS Read the biographical passages cited in the text relative to the difference of literary atmosphere in New York and Boston. Read W. D. Howells's "A Hazard of New Fortunes" for a further contrast between the two cities. Read Stoddard's poems with a view to marking definite literary influences as shown in poems which seem evidently imitative. Read a group of the four-line and eight-line poems of Aldrich and compare them in spirit and execution with similar bits by Stoddard and by Emerson. Read Stedman's critical essays on one or two of the New England poets and on two or three of his fellow New Yorkers. Read his essay on Walt Whitman. Does Stedman's own verse confirm the theory of his criticisms of Whitman? Read Gilder's poems in the newer verse forms and compare them with one of the contemporary poets mentioned in the last chapter of this book. Is there a legitimate connection to be mentioned between Gilder's poems on civic themes and the movement for better citizenship in the 1890's? Can you cite political events and characters and novels or plays on political life which belong to this period? CHAPTER XXIII THE POETRY OF THE SOUTH The non-mention of any Southern writers for nearly two centuries in a history of American literature is likely to mislead the unthinking reader. Certain qualifying facts should be reckoned with in drawing any deductions. The first and most specific is that Poe, although born in Boston and largely active in Philadelphia and New York, belongs to the South. His poems and tales are without time and space, but his criticisms are often vigorously sectional; yet he was really an isolated character, speaking for himself without associates or disciples.