Students of American magazines must often have read with pleasure the gay and amusing verses of Mr. H. C. Bunner. In the field of Mr. Dobson and Mr. Frederick Locker, Mr. Bunner is not the chief American poet. He comes distinctly after the author of "Elsie Venner" and the author of "The Heathen Chinee." Mr. Bret Harte and Dr. Holmes are di majorum gentium ; but Mr. Bunner, to our mind, of all the tuneful Transatlantic choir, is nearest to these famous writers. In Airs from Arcady we miss a certain "Chant Royal," written, ...
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Students of American magazines must often have read with pleasure the gay and amusing verses of Mr. H. C. Bunner. In the field of Mr. Dobson and Mr. Frederick Locker, Mr. Bunner is not the chief American poet. He comes distinctly after the author of "Elsie Venner" and the author of "The Heathen Chinee." Mr. Bret Harte and Dr. Holmes are di majorum gentium ; but Mr. Bunner, to our mind, of all the tuneful Transatlantic choir, is nearest to these famous writers. In Airs from Arcady we miss a certain "Chant Royal," written, we believe, by Mr. Bunner, and with a refrain "Behold the deeds that are done of Mrs. Jones." This was a truly American "Chant Royal"; and contained a most humorous sketch, rather rough in handling, of life in the class of clerks and dwellers in cheap boarding-houses. This poem we have vainly sought in Airs from Arcady . Perhaps Mr. Bunner thinks it too rude and reckless a companion for verses in a daintier, style. His prettily-printed volume is divided into sections headed "Arcadia," "Philistia," "Bohemia," "Elsewhere," and "Ultima Thule." These names will give a general idea of the character of the verses under each heading. For Arcadia and all its ways we feel as Villon felt about Franc Gontier. Mr. Bunner scarcely seems to us a rural or a classical poet; not even the Dresden china district of Arcadia is quite the native country of his soul. His refrains "Across the World to Arcady" and the like suggest a refrain of Mr. George Simcox's, in a poem which Mr. Bunner very probably never read, but which lingers in the ears of him who has once heard it. The following example of Mr. Bunner's Arcadian lay is pretty, at all events, and tuneful: Ah, woe is me, through all my days Wisdom and wealth I both have got, And fame and name, and great men's praise; But Love, ah, Love! I have it not. There was a time, when life was new But far away, and half forgot I only know her eyes were blue; But Love -- I fear I knew it not. We did not wed, for lack of gold, And she is dead, and I am old. All things have come since then to me, Save Love, ah, Love! and Arcady. Indeed, on second, or rather third, thoughts, and after a third reading, we think better than we did of Mr. Bunner's opening piece; he, too, may say, et ego in Arcadia. But no number of readings reconcile us to some jarring consonants in a rondel, "O! Honey of Hymettus Hill." In "Philistia" the first piece, "Da Capo," is conventional, like its subject, and its metre, a favorite with Mr. Bunner, the metre of "Dolores" applied to light topics: -- 'Tis a commonplace, stale situation, Now the curtain comes down from above On the end of our little flirtation-- A travesty romance; for Love, If he climbed in disguise to your lattice, Fell dead of the first kisses' pain: But one thing is left us now; that is-- Begin it again.
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Seller's Description:
Good. Hardcover. No DJ. Pages are clean and unmarked. Gilt top page edge. Covers show light edge wear with rubbing/light scuffing. Binding is tight, hinges strong.; 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed! Ships same or next business day!
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Seller's Description:
Good. No Jacket. Book Moderate scuffs, soils and other marks on exterior, with a cocked binding and slightly bowed front board; top edge guilt. 109 pages.
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Seller's Description:
Very good. C. Scribner's Sons, 1884. First Edition. Hard Cover. No dust jacket. Top edge gilt. Cover has very slight shelfwear with slightly rubbed spine ends and corners. Binding is cracked at title page with small tear on bottom of front endpaper. Binding is also cracked at back endpaper. Writing on back flyleaf. Pages are clean and unmarked. Hinges are perfect. Very nice copy.
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Very Good. No Jacket. 12mo-over 6¾"-7¾" tall. Blue cloth boards with gilt lettering and illustration, corner bumped. Pages are clean, text has no markings, binding is sound.
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Seller's Description:
Very Good. Later printing. 12mo. Pictorial navy blue cloth gilt stamped, top edge gilt. Contemporary owner's name and address on front fly, spine cocked, edges a bit worn, a very good copy. Poetry.
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Seller's Description:
Very Good. First edition. Small octavo, bound in blue buckram with gilt lettering and design, top edge gilt. Minor edge wear at the base of the spine, previous owner's name on front endpaper, else very good. No dust jacket.; 109 pages.
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Seller's Description:
Near Fine. First Edition. 12mo. Pictorial navy blue cloth gilt stamped, top edge gilt. Owner's decorative bookplate on front pastedown, else near fine. Poetry.
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Seller's Description:
Very Good. First edition, 1884. Navy cloth hardcover 12mo, 109pp. Very good with slight loss to the spine ends, bump to upper right corner. Contents are clean and unmarked, though lightly tanned around the edges. Laid in is a letter from the author, dated 1884, to poet and author Charles L. Moore, thanking him for sending a copy of his book "Poems Antique and Modern" (and promising to read it, noting his "excitement to read anything beyond the political columns of the daily papers"). Henry Cuyler Bunner was born in Oswego, New York and educated in New York City. From being a clerk in an importing house, he turned to journalism and quickly assumed the editorship of the comic weekly 'Puck'. He developed 'Puck' from a new struggling periodical into a powerful social and political organ. Charles Leonard Moore (1854-1925) was an American poet and essayist, born in Philadelphia. He became a lawyer and in 1878-79 served as United States Consul at San Antonio, Brazil. He contributed critically to the Chicago Dial Journal, and published "Poems Antique and Modern" the year before Bunner's "Airs from Arcady"