A cashier of the Globe Bank, Boston, 1825–65, well known in his life-time as a verse-writer, and still pleasantly remembered for the genuine sentiment in such poems as “The Family Meeting” and “The Winged Worshippers,” though an “Ode to Shakespeare” was once much praised. His poems first appeared in 1841, the latest edition being that of 1876.
Personal
Few poets have been more respected for moral worth and nobility of character.
General
A young man of Boston, Massachusetts—a merchant’s clerk, we believe, who obtained prize after prize, among the poets of his country, for his “Address” on the opening of sundry theatres. There is not much poetry in these papers, thus written; but—after all—they are about as good, and about as poetical, as the best of ours, by Johnson, Pope, Garrick, Byron, etc.
Mr. Sprague’s language is simple and nervous, and his imagery brilliant and striking. There is a spirit of pervading good sense in this [“Curiosity”] poem, which shows that he gives poetry its right place in his mind. Above all there is a lofty tone of thought, which indicates superiority to the affectations of the day.
The ode recited in the Boston theatre, at a pageant in honour of Shakspeare, in 1823, is one of the most vigorous and beautiful lyrics in the English language. The first poet of the world, the greatness of his genius, the vast variety of his scenes and characters, formed a subject well fitted for the flowing and stately measure chosen by our author, and the universal acquaintance with the writings of the immortal dramatist enables every one to judge of the merits of his composition. Though to some extent but a reproduction of the creations of Shakspeare, it is such a reproduction as none but a man of genius could effect.
Mr. Sprague is an accomplished belles-lettres scholar, so far as the usual ideas of scholarship extend. He is a very correct rhetorician of the old school. His versification has not been equalled by that of any American—has been surpassed by no one living or dead. In this regard there are to be found finer passages in his poems than any elsewhere. These are his chief merits. In the essentials of poetry he is excelled by twenty of our countrymen whom we could name. Except in a very few instances he gives no evidence of the loftier ideality.
The performance which has rendered Sprague best known to the country as a poet is his metrical essay on “Curiosity.”… It is written in heroic measure, and recalls the couplets of Pope. The choice of a theme was singularly fortunate. He traces the passion which “tempted Eve to sin” through its loftiest and most vulgar manifestations; at one moment rivalling Crabbe in the lowliness of his details, and at another Campbell in the aspiration of his song. The serious and the comic alternate on every page. Good sense is the basis of the work; fancy, wit, and feeling warm and vivify it; and a nervous tone and finished versification, as well as excellent choice of words, impart a glow, polish, and grace that at once gratify the ear and captivate the mind.
“The Shakespeare Ode” is a noble poem, and we think it his master-piece. The composition of the ode requires a rare union of great qualities: genius of a high order, boldness of metaphor, skill in versification, a delicate susceptibility to musical expression, all are requisite to success. Our author, by a single stroke of his pencil, sets before us the leading characters of the great dramatist, and they once more live again. If this be in any sense reproduction it seems more like a new creation. Not more vividly are the passions portrayed in “Alexander’s Feast” or in Collins’ famous Ode. Few poems have so felicitous a close.
His poem of “Curiosity,” delivered in 1829 before the Phi Beta Society of Harvard College, is so excellent in description in the various pictures it gives of human life, in the pungency of its wit and satire, that it deserves a place among the best productions of the schools of Pope and Goldsmith. His odes are more open to criticism, though they contain many thoughtful, impassioned, and resounding lines…. Perhaps Sprague’s most original poems are those in which he consecrated his domestic affections. Wordsworth himself would have hailed these with delight. Anybody who can read with unwet eyes “I See Still,” “The Family Meeting,” “The Brothers,” and “Lines on the Death of M. S. C.,” is a critic who has as little perception of the languages of natural emotion as of the reserves and refinements of poetic art.
It would be, of course, absurd to claim for Sprague a place by the side of the great singers of the world or of the English language. The moderation of his own claims was shown by his ceasing to write when he was only forty years old, and while he had yet more than forty years to live. Poetry was not the business, but the solace, of his life, and he was contented with a modest share of the rewards of genius. That he had the gift of poetic genius we think few readers of his poems will deny. His is not machine-made verse. His thoughts come flowing from his heart and mind, and they find fit words in which to clothe themselves. And this is what we understand to be meant by the “Vision and the Faculty Divine.” Though Sprague may not deserve to rank with the great poets of the English language, we think that he merits a high place among the minor poets of our literature.
Another example of the emptiness of contemporary fame. During the first half of the century he ranked second only to Bryant and Halleck, but to-day he is a little more than a vague memory.
It is difficult to understand how such a production [“Curiosity”] could obtain such popularity. It is of exemplary form, finished versification, and approved rhetoric, but mechanical in design and treatment, and, on the whole, rather tedious. It was one of the successful poems of the day, was largely read and quoted in this country, and grossly plagiarized in England.
