Page:The Poets and Poetry of the West.djvu/384



In a notice of Mrs. Bolton's poetry, written for the Columbian and Great West in 1850, William D. Gallagher, alluding to this "Invocation," said:

Her adjuration was answered, and since then (1845) the Muse has been her constant companion. .... Some of her poems are among the most beautiful of the day, and are entitled to an hon- orable place in the poetical literature of her country She sings, not because she has a demand from either the book trade or the magazine trade, but because song is the language of her heart, and she mmt sing, or her heart must ache with its suppressed emotions. She explains all this, truthfully and beautifully, in the following graceful stanzas :

Her power of imitation is very strong. Of all the attempts that have been made to copy the construction and flow of Poe's " Raven," hers is the most successful by far. It occurs in a poem on Poe's Death, and one or two of the stanzas are equal not only to the verse of the " Raven,"' but also to its poetry.

In 1850 the Grand Royal Arch Chapter of Free and Accepted Masons of Indiana presented Mrs. Bolton a silver cup, as a prize for an ode written by her, and sung at the laying of the corner-stone of Masonic Hall at Indianapolis. The presentation ser- vices were public. The largest church in Indianapolis was crowded. The Grand H. P, stated the object of the convocation, when James Morrison presented the cup, in an appropriate address. Mrs. Bolton accepted it, with a few words of thankfulness, which the State Sentinel said were "in the best taste, delivered in womanly style, clear and effective."

On the evening of the second of March, 1852, we heard IMrs. Bolton make a speech. Louis Kossuth was then the guest of the State of Indiana. ]Irs. Bolton, who had written a stirring poem to him in 1849, manifested deep interest in his mis-