Richard Hovey (May 4, 1864 – February 24, 1900) was an American poet. Graduating from

Dartmouth College Dartmouth College (; ) is a private research university in Hanover, New Hampshire. Established in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, it is one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the American Revolution. Although founded to educate Native A ...

in 1885, he is known in part for penning the school Alma Mater, '' Men of Dartmouth''.

Biography

Hovey was born in

Normal, Illinois Normal is a town in McLean County, Illinois, United States. As of the 2020 census, the town's population was 52,736. Normal is the smaller of two principal municipalities of the Bloomington–Normal metropolitan area, and Illinois' seventh most ...

, the son of Major General Charles Edward Hovey and Harriet Spofford Hovey. He grew up in

North Amherst, Massachusetts North Amherst is a census-designated place (CDP) in the town of Amherst in Hampshire County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 6,819 at the 2010 census, up from 6,019 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Springfield, Massachusett ...

, and in

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

, before attending Dartmouth. His first volume of poems was privately published in 1880. He collaborated with Canadian poet

Bliss Carman William Bliss Carman (April 15, 1861 – June 8, 1929) was a Canadian poet who lived most of his life in the United States, where he achieved international fame. He was acclaimed as Canada's poet laureate during his later years. In Canada, Car ...

on three volumes of "tramp" verse: ''Songs from Vagabondia'' (1894), ''More Songs from Vagabondia'' (1896), and ''Last Songs from Vagabondia'' (1900), the last being published after Hovey's death. Hovey and Carman were members of the "

Visionists The Visionists were an informal social club based in Boston, Massachusetts in the late 19th century, focused on the members' shared interests in artists, writers, and cultural movements. Documented members included: * Writer/architect Ralph Adams ...

" social circle along with F. Holland Day and Herbert Copeland, who published the "Vagabondia" series. Some twenty-nine poets have attempted to write sequels for Byron's ''Don Juan''. Hovey was one of them. Samuel Chew praised Hovey's “Canto XVII” in his book ''To the End of the Trail''. “This is one of the most convincing reproductions of the spirit and movement of Byron's verse that I have ever come across. It is supposed to be written by Byron in Hades. The poet refuses to take up the poem at the point at which Death had cut him short.— Southey’s forgotten; so is Castlereagh; But there are fools and scoundrels still today. In the sequel we hear nothing of Juan; the satire is expended upon current affairs. Byron is full of curiosity as to events on earth: I’ve such a next-day’s thirst for information, I’d even be content to read the ''Nation''. He died after undergoing minor surgery for a

varicocele varicocele is an abnormal enlargement of the pampiniform venous plexus in the scrotum. This plexus of veins drains blood from the testicles back to the heart. The vessels originate in the abdomen and course down through the inguinal canal as part ...

in 1900.Meyer, Bruce. "Richard Hovey". In Haralson, Eric L. (ed.) (1998), ''Encyclopedia of American Poetry: The Nineteenth Century'', p. 217. Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers. . Portrait of Richard Hovey

Selected poems

* Sea Gypsy by Richard Hovey * When We Are Dead by Richard Hovey * John Keats * To a Friend * Philosophy * The Old Pine * In Memoriam * Squab Flights * Kronos * College Days * Dante Gabriel Rossetti * The South

References

External links

The Cambridge History of English and American Literature

* * *
Dartmouth Lyrics by Richard Hovey
at Making Of America Books

Illinois State University Hovey Memorial, 1931

(Bloomington, IL newspaper)
The Richard Hovey Collection
at Dartmouth College Library {{DEFAULTSORT:Hovey, Richard 1864 births 1900 deaths Dartmouth College alumni Poets from Washington, D.C. People from Amherst, Massachusetts People from Normal, Illinois Poets from Massachusetts 19th-century American poets American male poets 19th-century American male writers