Birth of Dawes: his heart is always young

Born in Boston on January 26, 1803, Rufus Dawes was the youngest of sixteen children. His family for generations had been important politicians, patriots, and judges. A teenaged Rufus, however, was kicked out of Harvard College for what turned out to be a false accusation of impropriety. Nevertheless, the incident pushed him into poetry — his first verses were a satire on the college and faculty that had scorned him.

During his lifetime, Dawes was most recognized for his long poem Geraldine. His poems are generally highly-wrought, often focused on themes of romance, history, nature, or mythology. Among his most tolerable is "The Poet":

The poet's heart is always young,
   And flows with love's unceasing streams;
Oh, many are the lays unsung,
   Yet treasured with his dreams!

The spirits of a thousand flowers,—
   The loved,—the lost, — his heart enshrine;
The memory of blessed hours,
   And impulses divine.

Like water in a crystal urn,
   Sealed up forever, as a gem,
That feels the sunbeams while they burn,
   But never yields to them; —

His heart may fire —his fevered brain
   May kindle with concentrate power,
But kind affections still remain
   To gild his darkest hour.

The world may chide — the heartless sneer, —
   And coldly pass the Poet by,
Who only sheds a sorrowing tear
   O'er man's humanity.

From broken hearts and silent grief,
   From all unutterable scorn,
He draws the balm of sweet relief,
   For sufferers yet unborn.

His lyre is strung with shattered strings, —
   The heart-strings of the silent dead, —
Where memory hovers with her wings,
   Where grief is canopied.

And yet his heart is always young,
   And flows with love's unceasing streams;
Oh, many are the lays unsung,
   And treasured with his dreams!