February 27, 1861: “By the Lake Michigan”, by S. G. Philbrook, published in the Milwaukee Daily Sentinel.
Mr. Philbrook’s Poem.—So much excitement has been caused in the city by the sudden appearance of a home poet of extraordinary powers, and so much anxiety is felt to see some of his productions in print, that we have selected and obtained from him this following sweet morceau, which for rhythmical beauty and simplicity of thought is unequalled in the contemporaneous productions of the day:
Right early in September
Upon a Monday morn
I leisurely did wander
Adown the verdant lawn
To view the works of nature
By the lake Michigan,
The works of bounteous nature
By the Lake Michigan.
Where the Milwaukee river
That slowly glides along
As yellow and the Tiber
Far-famed in classic song
Doth mingle with the water
In the lake Michigan,
The clear and crystal water
In the lake Michigan.
There I espied a maiden,
A sight that I adore,
A blue-eyed blushing maiden
Upon the pebbly shore.
With ringlets dark’s a raven
By the lake Michigan,
As beauteous as heaven
By the lake Michigan.
She had a willow basket
Hung on her snowy arm
With pebbles she did fill it
And fancied it no harm
To converse with the poet
By the lake Michigan,
As none would ever know it
By the lake Michigan.
They talked of lofty mountains
Et cetera sublime
Of mineral springs and fountains
As old as Father Time,
Then of the heart’s emotions
By the lake Michigan,
Young lovers’ first emotions
By the lake Michigan.
How sweet the hours and gliding
To those who truly love;
How bitter the dividing
Those joined by ties above;
How sorrowful the parting,
By the lake Michigan,
I would there were no parting
By the lake Michigan.
Milwaukee, Sept. 1, ‘60