ThePoets and PoetryofCecil County, Maryland
Collected and Edited byGeorge Johnston,Author of The History of Cecil County.
A verse may finde him whom a sermon flies,
And turn delight into a sacrifice.—Herbert.
Elkton, MD:
Published by the Editor.
1887
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1887, by
George Johnston,
In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D.C.
This volume owes its existence to the desire of some of the teachers andpupils of the public schools in the northeastern part of Cecil county,to do honor to the memory of the late School Commissioner David Scott.Shortly after Mr. Scott’s death, some of the parties referred to,proposed to collect enough money by voluntary contributions to erect amonument over his grave, in order to perpetuate his memory, and also toshow the high regard in which he was held by them. This project beingbrought to the knowledge of the editor, he ventured to express theopinion that the best monument Mr. Scott could have, would be thecollection and publication of his poems in book form. This suggestionmet the approbation of the originators of the project, who asked thewriter to undertake the work of collecting the poems and editing thebook. Subsequent investigation showed that Mr. Scott had not left enoughpoems to justify their publication in a volume by themselves; and theoriginal plan of the work was changed, so as to include, so far as ithas been practicable to do so, the writings of all the native poets ofthe county, and those who though not natives, have resided and writtenin it.
Owing to causes not necessary to state it was impracticable, in somecases, to make as creditable a selection as could have been made had itbeen possible to have had access to all the poetry of the differentwriters. In a few instances the book contains all the poetry of thedifferent writers that it has been practicable to obtain. Herein, it ishoped, will be found sufficient apology, if any apology is needed, forthe character of some of the matter in the book.
If any apology is needed for the prominence given to the poems of DavidScott (of John.) it may be found in the foregoing statement concerningthe origin of the book; and in the fact, that, for more than a quarterof a century, the editor was probably his most intimate friend. Sointimate indeed were the relations between Mr. Scott and the writer,that the latter had the pleasure of reading many of his friend’spoems before they were published. The same may be said in a moreextended sense, of the poems of David Scott (of James) to whose exampleand teaching, as well as to that of the other Mr. Scott—for he wasa pupil of each of them—the writer owes much of whatever literaryability he may possess.
The editor is also on terms of intimacy with many of the othercontemporary writers whose poetry appears in the book, and has strivento do justice to their literary ability, by the selection of such oftheir poems as are best calculated, in his opinion, to do credit tothem, without offending the taste of the most fastidious readers of thebook.
From the foregoing statement it will be apparent that the object of theeditor was not to produce a book of poetical jems, but only to selectthe poems best adapted to the exemplification of the diversified talentsof their authors. The work has been a labor of love; and thoughconscious th