Chapter 14

O'REILLY, JOHN BOYLE, patriot, author, poet and journalist, was born on the banks of the famous river Boyne, in County Meath, Ireland, in the year 1844. In 1860 he went over to England as agent of the Fenian Brotherhood, an organization whose purpose was the freedom of Ireland from English rule. In 1863 he joined the English army in order to sow the seeds of revolution among the soldiers. In 1866 he was arrested, tried for treason, and sentenced to death. This was afterwards commuted to twenty years' penal servitude. In 1867 he was transported to Australia to serve out his sentence, whence he escaped in 1869, and made his way to Philadelphia. He became editor of the Boston _Pilot_ in 1874. He is the author of "Songs from the Southern Seas," "Songs, Legends and Ballads," and of other works. He died in 1890. All through life the voice and pen of Boyle O'Reilly were at the service of his Church, his native land, and his adopted country. Kindness was the keynote of his character. In 1896 Boston erected in his honor a magnificent memorial monument.

RILEY, JAMES WHITCOMB, called the "Hoosier Poet," was born in Indiana in the year 1852. In many of his poems there is a strong sense of humor. What he writes comes from the heart and goes to the heart. He has written much in dialect. His home is in Indianapolis.

RUSKIN, JOHN, one of the most famous of English authors, was born in London in 1819, and educated at Oxford. He spent several years in Italy in the study of art. He wrote many volumes of essays and lectures, chiefly on matters connected with art and art criticism. In his writings we find many beautiful pen-pictures of statues and fine buildings and such things. His "Modern Painters," a treatise on art and nature, established his reputation as the greatest art critic of England. He died in 1900.

SANGSTER, MRS. MARGARET E., editor and poet, was born in New Rochelle, N.Y., on the 22d of February, 1838, and educated in Vienna. She has successfully edited such periodicals as _Hearth and Home, Harpers' Young People, and Harpers' Bazaar,_ in which much of her prose and poetry has appeared. She is at present (1909) the editor of _The Woman's Home Companion._

SOUTHEY, ROBERT, an eminent English poet and author, was born in the year 1774. He began to write verse at the age of ten. In 1792 he was expelled from the Westminster School for writing an essay against corporal punishment. He then entered one of the colleges of Oxford University, where he became an intimate friend of Coleridge. While residing at Lisbon he began a special study of Spanish and Portuguese literature. In 1813 he was appointed poet-laureate of England, and in 1835 received a pension from the government. He died in 1843. Southey, Coleridge and Wordsworth are often called "The Lake Poets," because they lived together for years in the lake country of England, and in their writings described the scenery of that beautiful region.

TENNYSON, ALFRED, is considered the greatest poet of his age, and one of the great English poets of modern times. He was born in the year 1809, and educated at Cambridge University. In 1850 he gave to the world "In Memoriam," his lament for the loss by death of his friend, Arthur H. Hallam. In 1851 he succeeded Wordsworth as poet-laureate of England. His poems, long and short, are general favorites. His "Idyls of the King," "The Princess," "Maud," and "In Memoriam" are his chief long poems. These are remarkable for beauty of expression and richness of thought, of which Tennyson was master. He died in 1892, lamented by the entire English-speaking world, and was buried in Westminster Abbey. Tennyson always loved the sea, the music of whose restless waves awakened an answering echo in his heart.

WALLACE, WILLIAM R., was born at Lexington, Ky., in the year 1819. As a poet he is best known as the author of "The Sword of Bunker Hill."

WESTWOOD, THOMAS, an English poet, was born in the year 1814, and died in 1888. He wrote several volumes of poetry, one of which was "Beads from a Rosary."

WHITTIER, JOHN G., called the "Quaker Poet," was born in Massachusetts in the year 1807. His parents were Quakers and were poor. When young he learned to make shoes, and with the money thus earned he paid his way at school. He was a boy of nineteen when his first verses were published. His poems were inspired by current events, and their patriotic spirit gives them a strong hold upon the public. "Snow-bound" is considered his greatest poem. Whittier loved home so much that he never visited a foreign country, and traveled but little in his own. He gave thirty of the best years of his life to the anti-slavery struggle. While other poets traveled in foreign lands or studied in their libraries, Whittier worked hard for the freedom of the slave. Of this he wrote-- "Forego the dreams of lettered ease, Put thou the scholar's promise by; The rights of man are more than these."

Mr. Whittier died in the year 1892.

WISEMAN, CARDINAL NICHOLAS PATRICK, was born in the year 1802 in Seville, Spain, of an Irish family settled there. His family returned to Ireland, where he was educated. When he was sixteen he entered the English College, Rome, and was ordained priest in 1825. In 1840 he was appointed Coadjutor Bishop, and in 1850 the Pope named him Archbishop of Westminster, and at the same time created him a Cardinal. He was a profound scholar, an eloquent preacher, and a brilliant writer, and is the author of many able works. He was one of the founders of the _Dublin Review._ He died in 1865. His "Fabiola or the Church of the Catacombs," from which some selections have been taken for this Reader, is one of the classics of our language. It was written in 1854.

WOODWORTH, SAMUEL, editor and poet, was born in Massachusetts in 1785, and died in 1842. With George P. Morris, he founded the _New York Mirror._ "The Old Oaken Bucket" is the best known of his poems.

For sketches of other authors from whom selections are taken for this book, see the Third and the Fourth Reader of the series.

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