CARMAN, WILLIAM BLISS

(April 15, 1861–June 8, 1929), was a preeminent lyric poet of Canada. A distant relative of Ralph Waldo Emerson, he became well-known as a magazine writer. He was the editor of the New York Independent, editor of the Oxford Book of American Verse, 1927; and contributed verse to the Harvard Monthly. His first volume, Low Tide on Grand Pre, published in 1893, followed by the books of verse: Songs of Vagabondia, 1894–6, 1901; A Winter Holiday; Pipes of Pan; and Ballads of Lost Haven.

In his work, Vestigia, William Bliss Carman wrote:

I took a day to search for God,

And found Him not. But as I trod

By rocky ledge, through woods untamed,

Just where one scarlet lily flamed,

I saw His footprint in the sod.3055

Benson, Arthur Christopher (1862–1925), was an English author and educator, whose works include: The Upton Letters; From a College Window; and Walter Pater. In 1902, he wrote Land of Hope and Glory:

Land of hope and glory, mother of the free,

How shall we extol thee, who are born of thee?

Wider still and wider shall thy bounds be set;

God, who made thee mighty, make thee mightier yet.3056