Poems

Goodrich, Samuel G. (Samuel Griswold), 1793-1860Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

1.5

Word count: 106K words
Chapters: 11

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Poems by Samuel G. GoodrichAuthor: Goodrich, Samuel G. (Samuel Griswold), 1793-1860,Language: English, Class: PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature, Release Date: Mar 1, 2004

Editor's review

This poetry collection comes from the 19th-century American author Samuel G. Goodrich, best known by his pen name "Peter Parley," who wrote informative books for young readers for many years. The poems are plain in language and regular in meter, drawing mostly on daily life, natural scenery, and moral reflection, and bearing clear marks of their era and a didactic tone. As a public-domain ebook, it preserves the original face of 19th-century English poetry and offers some reference value for studying early American children's literature and popular verse forms. Readers need not seek the sharpness and experimentation of modern poetics, but may treat it as a window onto the rhythms and value expressions of an older English. It suits slow reading in a quiet setting, with notes consulted for unfamiliar words and historical allusions, and can also serve as introductory practice material for English poetic meter.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers interested in 19th-century American literature and children's books
Learners hoping to practice English poetic meter and recitation
Enthusiasts studying public-domain ebooks and early popular publications

Not a good fit for

Readers who prefer modernist or contemporary experimental poetry
Deep researchers expecting systematic annotation and scholarly guidance

Reading tips

First read through the table of contents, then choose poems with appealing subjects for close reading; there is no need to proceed poem by poem in order.
When reading aloud, pay attention to rhyme and rhythm; mark stresses in pencil to sense the features of older metrical forms.
Mark historical names or allusions as you go, then look them up together after finishing a poem, so as not to interrupt the flow of the language.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Is this book suitable for English beginners?

The poems are generally plain in language, but some vocabulary and allusions carry a 19th-century flavor, so beginners may need supporting tools. It is advisable to try it after gaining basic English reading ability, with a dictionary and recitation practice.

What subjects are mainly treated in the collection?

The available information describes it as a collection of Goodrich's poems, written largely for young people and general readers, with subjects often involving everyday observations, nature, and moral reflection; specific contents should be checked against the main text of the ebook.

Why is reading aloud recommended?

These poems have regular meter and obvious rhyme; reading aloud helps perception of rhythm and rhyme and reduces the fatigue of looking up every word, making it suitable practice for beginning English poetry.

Comments

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About the author

Goodrich, Samuel G. (Samuel Griswold), 1793-1860 Author

Samuel G. Goodrich (1793–1860) was a prolific American author of children's books and popular histories in the nineteenth century. Public information about him is limited, and the details of his life are difficult to verify, but the ten works held in this collection give a fair picture of his writing. He is known for the friendly narrator persona "Peter Parley", through which he recast history, geography, and natural science as stories and sketches in an easy style suited to young readers. His representative works include The Life of Benjamin Franklin, Illustrated; Curiosities of Human Nature; Peter Parley's Own Story; Peter Parley's Visit to London, During the Coronation of Queen Victoria; Lives of Celebrated Women; Famous Men of Ancient Times; Peter Parley's Tales About America and Australia; and History of the Indians, of North and South America, covering biography, travel, and customs. These books circulated widely in the English-speaking world of his day and helped popularize knowledge and encourage children's interest in reading.