But Taylor was a poet before he was a traveller. In 1844 he published (under the patronage of R. W. Griswold, his first literary adviser) a little volume entitled _Ximena, or, The Battle of the Sierra Morena, and Other Poems_. It was followed by _Rhymes of Travel_ (1848) and _The American Legend_, the Phi Beta Kappa poem at Harvard (1850). To these must be added _A Book of Romances, Lyrics, and Songs_, 1851; _Poems and Ballads_, 1854; _Poems of the Orient_, 1854; _Poems of Home and Travel_, 1855; _The Poet’s Journal_, 1862; _The Picture of St. John_, 1866; _The Masque of the Gods_, 1872; _Lars_, 1873; _The Prophet_, 1874; _Home Pastorals, Ballads, and Lyrics_, 1875; _The National Ode_ (read by the author at the opening of the ‘Centennial’), 1876; and _Prince Deukalion_, 1878. The great translation of Goethe’s _Faust_, with the commentary, appeared in 1870–71. Not content with his commercial success as a writer of travels, and his artistic triumphs in poetry, Taylor tried fiction. The first of his four novels, _Hannah Thurston_ (1863), is in part a satire and shows in their most disagreeable light the people who abhor meat and swear by vegetables, the people who profess to hold communication with spirits, the people who think other people ought not to buy and sell human flesh, and so forth. _John Godfrey’s Fortunes_ (1864) embodies not a few of Taylor’s journalistic experiences in New York. Here are glimpses of literary society such as the soirées at the home of Estelle Ann Lewis, the Mademoiselle de Scudéry of that time and place. _The Story of Kennett_ (1866) is a Pennsylvanian study, a true and lively picture of a phase of civilization which the author perfectly understood. _Joseph and his Friend_ (1870) closed the series of efforts by which Taylor tried to earn money enough to free him from the thraldom of the lecture platform. His other publications were _Beauty and the Beast, and Tales of Home_ (1872), _The Echo Club_ (1876), the posthumous _Studies in German Literature_ (1879), and _Essays and Studies_ (1880). Of Taylor’s private life a few important facts remain to be recorded. The pathetic story of Mary Agnew, the beautiful girl whom he had loved since they were school-children together, and whom he married on her death-bed, is a romance which fortunately has been well told by both of Taylor’s biographers. In 1857 (seven years after Mary Agnew’s death) Taylor married Marie Hansen, daughter of Professor Hansen of Gotha, the astronomer. How devoted and helpful she was to him during his arduous life, and how loyal to his memory, are facts too well known to require emphasis. The home at Kennett known as ‘Cedarcroft’ was built in 1859–60. Taylor lavished on it both money and affection; and while for a few years it gave him a deal of happiness, it proved in the end a burden he could ill afford to carry.