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John Godfrey Saxe

1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

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JOHN GODFREY SAXE (1816-1887), American poet, was born at Highgate, Vermont, on the 2nd of June 1816. He graduated at Middlebury College in 1839, and was admitted to the bar at St Albans, Vermont, in 1843. From 1850 to 1856 he edited the Burlington (Vermont) Sentinel, in 1859 and in 1860 was the candidate of the Democratic party for governor of Vermont, in 1860 removed to New York, and after 1872 edited the Evening Journal at Albany, New York, where he died on the 31st of March 1887. He was best known as a writer of humorous verse and a lecturer. His travesties and satires found many readers or listeners, and some of his love lyrics and other poems combine sparkle with real feeling. His "Rhyme of the Rail," "The Proud Miss McBride," "I'm Growing Old" and "Treasures in Heaven" were once very popular. Among his published collections are Humorous and Satirical Poems (1850), The Times, The Telegraph, and other Poems (1865), and Leisure Day Rhymes (1875).