Commonplace Book of Early American Poems 1777-1788

Access and use

Location of collection:
University of Virginia, Special Collections Dept.
Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library
University of Virginia
P.O. Box 400110
160 McCormick Rd
Charlottesville, Virginia 22904-4110
Contact for questions and access:
POC: Brenda Gunn
Phone: (434) 924-1037
Phone: (434) 243-1776
Fax: (434) 924-4968
Restrictions:

Collection is open to research.

Terms of access:

See the University of Virginia Library’s use policy.

Preferred citation:

A Guide to a Commonplace Book of Early American Poems, Accession 6329, Special Collections Department, University of Virginia Library

Summary

Creator:
Language:
English
Preferred citation:

A Guide to a Commonplace Book of Early American Poems, Accession 6329, Special Collections Department, University of Virginia Library

Background

Scope and content:

The compiler of this 382-page manuscript volume was Hugh McConnelof Fisk Kill Landing, New Jersey. (See "author's inscription" on page 34, etc. The compiler docketed several of the entries "Fish Kill," "Landing," or alternatively, "Fish Kill Barricks," "Barricks," "Barr-s," or "B.") The volume was evidently compiled 1777-1788, but includes items originating at earlier dates. Few of the entries are attributed to other authors. While some of the unattributed entries (such as the anecdotes) may simply have been recorded by the compiler, it appears that a majority of the entires may be Hugh McConnel's original composition.

The volume contains approximately four hundred entries: American, English, and Masonic poems, songs, and verse, as well as anecdotes, maxims, essays, and historical notes. Major themes include American patriotism, anti-British sentiment, wit and humor, military history, love, philosophy, ethics, and Freemasonry. A number of the songs and anecdotes are somewhat risque. A watercolored fraktur appears on page 61, and an engraving, "New York Packet," appears on page 187.

Pages 184-186, 299, 338, and 351 are blank.

Items listed in order of their appearance.

Condition

It appears that at least one page at the beginning of the volume was lost, and significant portions of pages 59-62, 97-98, 101-102, 313-314, and 341-346 were cut or torn out prior to the acquisition of the volume; other textual loss has resulted from damage to the edges of the pages and the acidity of the ink used. Due to its deteriorated condition, the volume was debound, and the pages deacidifed and laminated by the Barrow process.

[The bird that hears her nestlings cry...]

[What's fickle as the wind, the French delight...]

[To the Brethren most ancient, [may] I them address...]

[Take that cardinal virtue most blended with art...]

[How like the fleeting wind, away...]

[My muse now thy aid and assistance we claim...]

[From Scottish mountains hid in snow...]

[An unbelieving Jew one day was skating o'er...]

[Is prudence the cardinal virtue you mean...]

[Could I command the riches of a crown...]

[Hark, hark, the joy-inspiring horn...]

[Her sheep had in clusters [crept] close to a grove...]

[Fair Hebe I left with a cautious [design]...]

[The world is like a whirly gig and swiftly spins...]

[Hark, hark, the joyful news is come...]

[Says Plato why should man be vain...]

[Now has the Brittens snatch'd a short repast...]

[The lofty pillars of the sky...]

[Peace worthy shade! Peace to thy virtuous soul...]

[When late, oppress'd with heart-felt grief...]

[Before that noble creature man, sprang from the dust...]

[Man whilst alone in Eden mourn'd his state...]

[In choice of a wife, prefer the modest, chaste...]

[When Sheba's beautious queen urg'd on fame...]

[Hail Americans hail, still unrivaled in fame...]

[Eager the soldier meets his desperate foe... (with watercolor fraktur)]

[Come all you Americans that's faithful and brave...]

[And are you sure the news is true...]

[Th'o the fate of battle on to morrow wait...]

["War; how I hate thy horrid name..."]

[O [damn] this congress, [damn] each upstart state...]

[As I was a-walking one morning...]

[In a mouldering cave, where the wretched retreat...]

[Grieve not for me my dearest dear...]

[In a chariot of light from the region of day...]

[Sleep, Adam, sleep, and take thy rest...]

[As fair Olinda sat beneath a shady tree...]

[Silvia the fair, in the bloom of fifteen...]

[A mason's daughter, fair and young...]

[Once I was blind and could not see...]

[King Solomon, that wise projector...]

[A health to our sisters let's drink...]

[A mason one time was cast for a crime...]

[To all who..., this counsel I bestow...]

[Freedom is a real treasure...]

[Here lies DuVall, Reader if male thou art...]

[On day as I was walking down a river side...]

[Come on my harts of tempred steel...]

[God save America, free from tyrannic sway...]

[A [crab louse] I am, from a [crab louse] I came...]

[What thanks, my friend should be given...]

[Ah! Few and full of sorrow are the days...]

[Fame did he seek, he surely has it...]

[Then like a sailor by the tempest hurl'd...]

[The husband's the pilot, the wife is the ocean...]

[The scene of death is clos'd, the mournful strain...]

[If marriage gives happiness to life...]

[Fairwell to you sweet Ireland...]

[Bumpers about my friendly circle...]

[While thro' the drear of frost and snow...]

[parody on Aristophanes]

[He comes, he comes, the hero comes...]

[The place I admire, and whose people I love...]

[The half of a part of an egg fulle of meat...]

[From clouds of smoke and flames that round me glow...]

[While scenes of transport, every breast inspire...]

[Bravely to aim at something, to make known...]

[England, I feel for what I'm sure you must...]

[Since sleep, death's image (nightly warnings...)]

"July they say, the fifteenth day..."

[re: auction of possessions of Sir Henry Clinton]

[Hark! Hear the trumpet's pleasing sound...]

['Twas on a time (I shan't say when)...]

[Hail Masonry, thou craft divine...]

[A Commander in Chief for the British armies...]

[Says Satan to Jammy, I hold you a bet...]

[By your leave, gossip John, by my faith, 'tis so long...]

[Well heavens be prais'd, the mighty secret's out...]

[The British rights in America, consisting...]

[The remaining stock in trade of the Royal Navy...]

[Now nature's genial instinct fires...]

[My Lords, I can hardly from weeping refrain...]

[Manly Yorkers, fill your glasses...]

[Says Cato, why should men repine...]

[Grown sick of war, and war's alarms...]

[I've often wish'd to be the god of love...]

[Be early wise, lest prudence come too late...]

[Tell me ye knowing and discerning few...]

[If marriage ever be my lot in life...]

[Grant me kind heaven! The man that's brave...]

[Says Nan, one day, to her husband Dick...]

[In former days -no matter when -four-footed beasts resembled men...]

[Marriage, that makes two bodies one...]

[Columbia, Columbia, to glory arise...]

[No more my friends, of vain applause...]

[encloses letter from James Craufurd detailing booty of scalps and Indian petitions]

[You know there goes a tale...]

[Fame let thy trumpet sound...]

[Ye sons of Mars attend...]

[Pride, the consumptive child of a weak mind...]

[The more I reflect, the more plain it appears...]

[To blast thy fame though pining envy tries...]

[In a chariot of light from the regions above...]

[A watch may represent the mind of man...]

[The unweary'd progress which you've made...]

[Grave autumn clad in hazy-tintur'd hue...]

[A time there was of manners plain...]

[Since life is uncertain, and no one can say...]

[Britannia's dead, her glory now is o'er...]

[My son, attentive hear the voice of [truth]...]

[This twenty-seventh of November...]

[Warrior, farewell! Eccentrically brave...]

[re: why Nova Scotia exists]

[Of all the dirty Tory race...]

[re: Levi Pawling, d. 1782 Apr 30]

[Let the voice of music breathe...]

[Fair Celia of yon yellow hill...]

[Great bodies move slow I've heard said...]

[To the Senate of York, with all due submission...]

[re: the accidental destruction of the King of Portugal's china by Burgoyne's wife]

[Can av'rice give content: the miser view...]

[To speer my love wi glances fair...]

[re: John Webb, d. 1746 May 3]

[It must be so -farewell my native land...]

[re: birth of quintuplets]

[Ye sacred tomes by my inerring guide...]

[Full fifty thousand Prussia's kings has ta'en...]

[Three fifths of the world which a wit I know says...]

[Ye blooming fair of race divine...]

[Says vaunting bute, `in times to come...']

[Undone by women, faithful records tell...]

[O why dost thou fond parent grieve...]

[Forbear, in pity, ah! Forbear to sooth...]

[See, with a like refulgent light two Juniuses appear...]

[Spring! Gladsome season of the year...]

[Lull'd in a pleasing sleep, old Gripus lies...]

[Good unexpected, evil unforeseen...]

[O spirit of the truly brave...]

[includes capitals and populations]

[Would you, my friend, in little room express...]

[Sir John and Sir John's spouse the tombs survey'd...]

[In Britain's land, our author tells...]

[My nam's Shady Carty, I don't care who knows it...]

[The heavy hours are almost past...]

"Guardian angels now protect me..."

[Free from confinement and strife...]

[See the conquering hero comes...]

[Oh! how shall I, in language weak...]

[Come, rouze brother sportsmen, the hunters all cry...]

[At the sign of the horse, old spintext, of course...]

[I'm a hole that's too narrow when first I am try'd...]

[Cease rude boreas blustering railer...]

[Phillis, as her wine she sipp'd in...]

[Sylvia on her arm reclining...]

[Hark! Hark! The joy-inspiring horn...]

[In penance for past folly, a pilgrim blithe...]

[How stands the glass around, for shame you take...]

[When the trees are all bare, not a leaf...]

[Not far from town a country squire...]

[John Anderson, my Jo, John...]

[Sure Sally is the lovliest lass...]

[Welcome, welcome, brother debtor...]

[Contented I am, and contented I'll be...]

["By my sighs you may discover..." ; "Ye gods, ye give to me a wife..." ; "Lyle's a garden, rich in treasure..." ; "In infancy our hopes and fears..." ; "If o'er the cruel tyrant, love..." ; "Arise, arise, great dead, for arms renown'd..." ; "Through all the employments of life..." ; "Fly switftly, ye minutes, till comus receive..." ; "Hark! 'Tis I, your own true lover..." ; "Behold, from many a hostile shore..." ; "Nanny blushes when I woo her..." ; " 'Tis woman that seduces all mankind..." ; "Phillis, the fairest of love's foes..." ; "If the heart of man is depress'd with cares..." ; "The modes of the Court so common are grown..."

Acquisition information:
Deposit, April 16, 1960 .
Processing information:

Funded in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities

Physical location:
Physical description:
1 bound volume