Jefferson as Poet
Thomas Jefferson did not write many poems, although he had a
great appreciation for poetry.[1] He read and quoted widely
from poets such as Homer, Virgil,
John Dryden, and John Milton. Ossian was a special source of pleasure.
In 1786, Jefferson's pleasure reading briefly turned more
scholarly when he wrote "Thoughts
on English Prosody," an essay in which he debated whether the principal
characteristic of English poetry was accent or quantity (he settled on accent).
From the age of fifteen until he turned
thirty, he kept a Literary
Commonplace Book[2] in
which he pasted
newspaper
clippings
of favorite
poems and prose. Beginning in 1801, he began the first of two poetry
scrapbooks dedicated exclusively to poetry clippings.[3]
Jefferson also helped his granddaughters create their own poetry scrapbooks.
One
of them, Virginia Randolph Trist, recalled that "whenever
an opportunity occurred, he sent us books; and he never saw a little story
or
piece of poetry in a newspaper, suited to our ages and tastes, that he did
not preserve and send it to us."[4]
Jefferson may have composed some light verse during periods of his later life, but the only surviving poem of definite authorship by Jefferson was written in 1826, at the approach of his death. Confined to bed by illness, Jefferson wrote "A death-bed Adieu" for his daughter, Martha Randolph[5]. On July 2, two days before he died, Jefferson told Martha that he'd composed a farewell in her honor; following his instructions, she found the verse in a small box after his death.
"A death-bed Adieu. Th:J to MR."
Life's visions are vanished, it's dreams are no more.
Dear friends of my bosom, why bathed in tears?
I go to my fathers; I welcome the shore,
which crowns all my hopes, or which buries my cares.
Then farewell my dear, my lov'd daughter, Adieu!
The last pang in life is in parting from you.
Two Seraphs await me, long shrouded in death;
I will bear them your love on my last parting breath.
A number of scholars also have attributed to Jefferson an
unfinished poem, "To
Ellen," indicating that it may have been intended for his granddaughter
Ellen Coolidge.
Page
One Page
Two
 
"To Ellen"
Tis hope supports each noble flame,
'Tis hope inspires poetic lays,
Our heroes fight in hopes of fame,
And poets write in hopes of praise.
She sings sweet songs of future years,
And dries the tears of present sorrow,
Bids doubting mortals cease their fears,
And tells them of a bright to-morrow.
And where true love a visit pays,
The minstrel hope is allways there,
To soothe young Cupid with her lays,
And keep the lover from despair.
Why fades the rose upon thy cheek;
Why droop the lilies at the view?
Thy cause of sorrow, Ellen speak,
Why alter'd thus thy sprightly hue?
Each day, alas! with breaking heart,
I see they beautous form decline;
Yet fear my anguish to impart,
Lest it should add a pang to thine.
I will not be afraid whi
have to
Gilbert Chinard, in his introduction to The Literary Bible of Thomas Jefferson (Baltimore, Md.: The Johns Hopkins Press, 1928), believes that "the fact that the last lines [of the poem] are incomplete, as if the young author had been unable to find the proper rhymes and bring his effort to a satisfactory completion, is at least an indication that Jefferson wrote the poem himself and did not copy if from an anthology" (p. 26). It is unlikely, however, that Jefferson composed this poem. The first three stanzas of Jefferson's poem appear anonymously as part of a poem titled "Hope" in the literary compilation The Cruet Stand (Londs, W. Tegg, 1853). The final two stanzas of Jefferson's poem also appear as a separate poem, titled "To Maria," in the May 15, 1793 issue of The Bee, or Literary Weekly Intelligencer. The poem differs from Jefferson's stanzas only in its use of the name Maria instead of Ellen ("Thy cause of sorrow Maria speak"), and is attributed to James Watt.
These two poems may have been in circulation in Jefferson's time; if so, Jefferson, or another person, may have copied the two poems as a single work and changed the reference from Maria to Ellen, perhaps to make it applicable to Jefferson's granddaughter. Furthermore, it seems unlikely that Jefferson's unpublished poem would have been circulated outside of the family, raising the question of how it would have become known and published, in partial versions, in The Cruet Stand and The Bee. Finally, the poem appears to be written in the hand his daughter, Mary (Maria) Eppes. Rather than composing "To Ellen" himself, Jefferson may have sent Maria clippings of the two poems that form the text of "To Ellen," which she subsequently copied out, changing the name in the poem to that of her niece.
Notes
1. Until recently, most scholars thought that Jefferson's interest in poetry
waned significantly in his later years. To learn why this may not have
been the case,
see
Jonathan
Gross's "When
Jefferson Dined Alone" (http://hnn.us/articles/20061.html, History
News Network, February
12, 2006).
2. See Jefferson's Literary Commonplace Book,
ed. Douglas L. Wilson (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1989)
for
a critical edition.
3. The contents of Jefferson's poetry scrapbooks can be found
in Jonathan Gross's Thomas Jefferson's Scrapbook's:
Poems of Nation, Family & Romantic Love Collected by America's Third
President (Sterforth Press: Hanover, New
Hampshire, 2006).
4. B. L. Rayner, Sketches of the Life, Writings, and
Opinions of Thomas Jefferson. With Selections of the Most Valuable Portions
of His
Voluminous and Unrivaled
Private Correspondence (New York: A. Francis and W. Boardman, 1832.):
346-47.
5. The poem first appeared in its entirety in Sarah Randolph's The Domestic Life of Thomas Jefferson (1871). A facsimile of the original manuscript is available at Virginia's James Monroe Museum, and appears as the frontispiece to Andrew Burstein's Jefferson's Secrets: Death and Desire at Monticello (New York: Basic Books, 2005).
|
The
Library of Congress >> Especially
for Researchers >> Virtual
Programs & Services
Top
of Page
