19 cent Handwritten Journal Full of Poetry and Poems, 1820-1830

[Poems] [Prayer Journal] Poetry and prayer journal written in many hands, with entries dated from 1820-1830. Original red half morocco. Gilt detail on front cover “H. P. Tuckerman.” 120 pages (writing on first 76 pages). Unpaginated. 9 x 7 1/2 in. 53 handwritten entries from many different individuals. Original drawing mother and child under tissue on first page signed by “S. Tuckerman”. Two pencil drawings of forest scenes.

Entries include a Hymn written for the British and Foreign School Society. “The stream which once a slender wild, Wholl’d scarcely seen its humble way, Now gushes freely from the hill, And splashes into day. Oh stream of (truncated) knowledge when thy tides, Brings hope, and life and yonder, To every tree that decks thy sides, Forget not then the flowers…A thousand wreaths crown many proud brow, A thousand tongues his praise accord; The marble almost living now, Now the death dealing sword. His greatness lives the earth and sky, and tracks the [..] flood, But womans Happiest destiny, Is only — to be good.”

Includes Biblical inscriptions from Luke 2 and many meditations on religious topics, such as one Prayer entry dated to 1827: “The smiling sky is every bright, the earth is fair with flowers, There comes not night, there falls not blight ton childhood’s blissful hours;— Then pray—Heaven sees no sight so fair As happy childhood bowed in prayer.”

Many of the entries deal with themes of mortality and death. “Life is but a scanty ledge—Where the poor traveler walk suspended o’er a fathomless abyss! Oh! let him heed his footing, heed his side! Chance, play round him momently and each may sweep him to destruction.” Another poem comes with an introduction about the untimely death of the author: “Verses on hearing an Eolian harp at midnight, by a young gentleman who died of a consumption a few days after writing them. // Ye heavenly sounds! enchanting notes! That swell the whispering breeze; Lay whence your soft complaining airs, Your magic power to please. Are ye some fairy tiny voice, That by the glow worms light, At lonely hours your vigils keep, Unmark’d by mortal sight? Are ye some nymph of ancient time, Like Echo hapless maid, In plaintive songs that woo’d your love Till changed into a shade?”

Other entries focus on the natural world, such as a poem entry from 1828 titled “Spring Mountain”: “How sweet the landscape—morning twines, Her tresses round the brown of day, And bright mist on the forest pines, Like happy spirits, float away, So well on the mountain, crown, Whence the glad stream, comes shouting down, Through woods and rocks, that hang on high, Like clouds against the deep blue sky. Oh, at this hour, when air and earth, Are gushing love, and joy, and light, And songs of gladness hail the birth, Of all that, beautiful and bright, It comes so fresh, so with so sweet, It draws the heart from its retreat, To mingle with the glories born, On the first holy light of Morn.” Another reads: “What’s Life? the meteor’s lurid glare, that shoots athwart the sky: We gaze, tis gone, nor vestige there, nor trace can we espy. Tis transient as the morning dew, tis fading as the rainbow’s hue, tis pulsing as the boreal light, Just hails the day to sink in night.” Some light toning and minimal foxing. Very good condition. (Inventory #: 16585)