There are no frowning crags on our green mountains, No dark, forbidding cliffs where gorges yawn; The streams flow gently seaward from their fountains, As through the silent valley steals the dawn. Here nature smoothes the rugged, tames the savage. And men born here in victory are kind, Forbearing still the foeman's land to ravage, And in defeat they bear a steadfast mind. I'm proud of land, of kindred, and of nation, I'm proud my home is where the waters flow; Afar I see in golden radiation My native land like sun through amber glow. Its warmth revives my heart, however lonely: Forgive me, Princess, if my soul's aflame,-- But rather be at home, a beggar only, Than, exiled thence, have universal fame. Translation of Charles Harvey Genung. JOSEPH RODMAN DRAKE (1795-1820) [Illustration: JOSEPH RODMAN DRAKE] Conspicuous among the young poets, essayists, and journalists, who made up literary New York in the early part of the century, was Joseph Rodman Drake, the friend of Halleck, and the best beloved perhaps of all that brilliant group. Hardly known to this generation save by 'The Culprit Fay' and 'The American Flag,' Drake was essentially a true poet and a man of letters. His work was characteristic of his day. He had a certain amount of classical knowledge, a certain eighteenth-century grace and style, yet withal, an instinctive Americanism which flowered out into our first true national literature. The group of writers among whom were found Irving, Halleck, Willis, Dana, Hoffman, Verplanck, Brockden Brown, and a score of others, reflected that age in which they sought their literary models. With the exception of Poe, who belonged to a somewhat later time and whose genius was purely subjective, much of the production of these Americans followed the lines of their English predecessors,--Johnson, Goldsmith, Addison, and Steele. It is only in their deeper moments of thought and feeling that there sounds that note of love of country, of genuine Americanism, which gives their work individuality, and which will keep their memory green.