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Lament for La Fayette.
[United States, ca. 1834.] Autograph manuscript in ink, 9.25” x 7.75”, text within ornamental ink border. CONDITION: Very good, light spotting, discreet document tape repairs at verso of two short tears (.5” to 1”) and one very small loss at upper-left corner. A pleasingly ornamental manuscript copy of a poetic tribute to the Marquis de Lafayette, “the hero of the two worlds,” who died ten years after his celebrated tour of all twenty-four united states whose independence he was so instrumental in securing. Evidence of the personal esteem in which Lafayette was held by so many Americans, these painstakingly transcribed verses are bordered by four rosettes and a pattern of leaves and decorative motifs, the arching title set against a sunburst of fine lines. Lafayette is celebrated as the “giant,” the “sun” and the “bright daystar” of freedom, “whose memory will glow through the far flight of time,” though it “in glory hath set. / The heroes who bled for our country’s salvation, / Now joy in thy presence, Oh, brave La Fayette!” This poem, encompassing four additional verses, seems to have first appeared in the New Yorker, the first paper founded and edited by the young Horace Greeley. In July of 1834, just two months after Lafayette’s death, it was fittingly reprinted in The Lafayette Free-Press, and Commercial Advertiser in Lafayette, Indiana. The Free-Press credits the work to “Falconer,” although in a 1910 anthology of Poetical Favorites Yours and Mine (compiled by Warren Snyder) it is attributed to an “author unknown.” An appealing manuscript tribute to Lafayette likely penned shortly after his death. REFERENCES: “Lament for Lafayette,” The Lafayette Free-Press, and Commercial Advertiser, July 19, 1834; Snyder, Warren. Poetical Favorites Yours and Mine (New York: Wessels & Bissell Co., 1910), pp. 384–85.
Item #10400
On Hold
Price: $950.00
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