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The Culprit Fay
Excerpt from The Culprit Fay
Drake's marvelously delicate and beautiful poem The Culprit Fay is valuable not only for historical reasons, as a landmark in American literature, but also for its own sake, as a composition which possesses a charm alike for young and old and which is to-day as fresh in its interest as on the day when it was first published. Historically The Culprit Fay appears as the first narrative poem of any importance in American letters. With Scott's narrative poems and Moore's Lallah Rookh, it marks the transition from the fixed pentar meters of the old heroic verse to the lighter, shorter lines of the more modern poetry. It completely refuted the contention, so earnestly put forth, that American scenery could not inspire poetic thought, as does the natural scenery of the Old World. It lent a charm to the scenes of the Hudson, akin to that which is possessed by the storied and ruin-crowned banks of the rivers of Europe.
Drake's marvelously delicate and beautiful poem The Culprit Fay is valuable not only for historical reasons, as a landmark in American literature, but also for its own sake, as a composition which possesses a charm alike for young and old and which is to-day as fresh in its interest as on the day when it was first published. Historically The Culprit Fay appears as the first narrative poem of any importance in American letters. With Scott's narrative poems and Moore's Lallah Rookh, it marks the transition from the fixed pentar meters of the old heroic verse to the lighter, shorter lines of the more modern poetry. It completely refuted the contention, so earnestly put forth, that American scenery could not inspire poetic thought, as does the natural scenery of the Old World. It lent a charm to the scenes of the Hudson, akin to that which is possessed by the storied and ruin-crowned banks of the rivers of Europe.
- GenresPoetry
39 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1835
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Displaying 1 - 1 of 1 review
October 11, 2021
A fine collection of poems, written by a poet in the early 19th Century. The Culprit Fay was my favorite and the longest poem of the collection. Mr. Drake only lived to the age of 25 and didn't live to see this book in print; the poems were originally published posthumously by his daughter in 1835. Although Edgar Allen Poe was not a full-fledged fan of Drake, I enjoyed them as a snapshot of poetry of the time.
Displaying 1 - 1 of 1 review