§21. Charles Fenno Hoffman. V. Bryant and the Minor Poets. Vol. 15. Colonial and Revolutionary Literature; Early National Literature, Part I. The Cambridge History of English and American Literature: An Encyclopedia in Eighteen Volumes. 1907

Reference > Cambridge History > Colonial and Revolutionary Literature; Early National Literature, Part I > Bryant and the Minor Poets > Charles Fenno Hoffman

Samuel Woodworth; George P. Morris

Nathaniel Parker Willis

CONTENTS · VOLUME CONTENTS · INDEX OF ALL CHAPTERS · BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

The Cambridge History of English and American Literature in 18 Volumes (1907–21).
VOLUME XV. Colonial and Revolutionary Literature; Early National Literature, Part I.

V. Bryant and the Minor Poets.

§ 21. Charles Fenno Hoffman.

Charles Fenno Hoffman (1806-1884), another Knicker-bocker editor 35 and a song-writer, who, says a recent critic, 36 “possessed a lyric note almost completely unknown in the America of his time,”—by which is meant a certain catchy musical lilt,—is, however, chiefly memorable for the fine ballad Monterey:

We were not many, we who stood

Before the iron sleet that day:

Yet many a gallant spirit would

Give half his years if but he could

Have been with us at Monterey.

This is, or should be, a classic in a genre rare in our literature, whose poets have seldom communicated with martial fire the rapture of the strife or celebrated worthily the achievements of our arms. Bryant wrote a critical sketch for the last edition of Hoffman’s poems.

Note 35. See Book II, Chaps. VII and XX. [ back ]

Note 36. Trent, W.P., in American Literature, p. 457. [ back ]

CONTENTS · VOLUME CONTENTS · INDEX OF ALL CHAPTERS · BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Samuel Woodworth; George P. Morris

Nathaniel Parker Willis

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