Our fourteen wards
Contain some seven-and-thirty-bards,

he rather understated than exaggerated the fact. Mr. Griswold, besides
the ninety regular poets in his collection, gives an appendix of about
seventy fugitive pieces by as many authors; and bitter complaints
have been made against him in various quarters for not including
some seventy, or a hundred and seventy more, 'who,' it is said, and
probably with truth, 'have as good a right to be there as many of
those admitted.' Still it is possible to pick out a few of general
reputation, whom literati from all parts of the Union would agree
in sustaining as specimens of distinguished American poets, though
they would differ in assigning their relative position. Thus, if the
Republic had to choose a laureate, Boston would probably deposit a
nearly unanimous vote for Longfellow; the suffrages of New York might
he divided between Bryant and Halleck; and the southern cities would
doubtless give a large majority for Poe. But these gentlemen, and
some three or four more, would be acknowledged by all as occupying
the first rank. Perhaps, on the whole, the preponderance of native
authority justifies us in heading the list with Bryant, who, at any
rate, has the additional title of seniority in authorship, if not in
actual years.

"William Cullen Bryant is, as we learn from Mr. Griswold, about
fifty-five years old, and was born in Massachusetts, though his
literary career is chiefly associated with New York, of which he is
a resident. With a precocity extraordinary, even in a country where
precocity is the rule instead of the exception, he began to write _and
publish_ at the age of thirteen, and has, therefore, been full forty