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            Nathaniel Appleton Haven
   (1790-1826)
 New Hampshire
 Nathaniel Appleton Haven was born on January 14, 1790 
              in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. He studied at Harvard College and 
              after receiving his degree took up theology but dropped the pursuit 
              for various reasons. Haven then became a lawyer, practicing in Portsmourth 
              for the remainder of his life. Haven was for some years the editor 
              of the Portsmouth Journal. [Source: Samuel 
              Kettell, 2 Specimens of American Poetry, with Critical and Biographical 
              Notices 335 (New York: Benjamin Blom, 1967)(1829)(3 vols.)]. 
               Kettell notes that "After his death, a selection 
              from his works was published, with a biographical memoir by Professor 
              Ticknor of Harvard University." [Id.] In 
              July, 1828, editors of the North American Review used the 
              occasion of the publication of George Ticknor's The Remains of 
              Nathaniel Appleton Haven. With a Memoir of His Life in the previous 
              year to comment on Haven as follows:  
             
              Though not an enthusiast in anything, Mr Haven was very ardent 
                in the pursuit of his profession,—the law. But in his character 
                every part kept its just proportion. His delicate taste was not 
                suffered to disgust him with the practical details of his profession. 
                He knew that there was no real inconsistency between professional 
                eminence and literary taste; the former was not an object which 
                he permitted to swallow up every other; nor was it necessary for 
                him, as for the Ephesian sorcerers, to burn his books of enchantment;—for, 
                though strictly faithful to the interests confided to his care, 
                he kept up his acquaintance with classical studies and general 
                literature, without what the merest slave of the profession could 
                have called a waste of time. He found opportunity to suggest and 
                mature various plans of public improvement;—the moment his mind 
                was at liberty, it seemed to turn of itself to the general welfare. 
                His biographer speaks of Lord Mansfield as the model for a lawyer; 
                we think Mr Haven would have been more ambitious to resemble Sir 
                Matthew Hale, the Angel of the English law. For religion, deep, 
                sincere, and fervent, entered into all his pursuits and feelings. 
                It was not worn as a garment, but was a part of himself; it appeared, 
                because it could not help appearing in his words, deeds, and even 
                his manner.  * * * * The specimens of Mr Haven's poetry deserve notice, 
                not so much on account of its originality, as the beautiful tone 
                of its feeling. The world, just come to a sense of its own importance, 
                is too busy to attend to poetry, and there are certainly things 
                more important; but the sweet and thoughtful views of nature, 
                the lonely musings of a poetical imagination, are required to 
                believe this perpetual and often needless bustle; and a cultivated 
                mind will neither despise, nor be wholly without them. The lines 
                on Autumn, are the most poetical.  
               
                 
                       I love the dews of nightI love the howling of the wind
 I love to hear the tempest sweep
 O'er the billows of the deep!
 For nature's saddest scenes delight
 The melancholy mind.
 
 Autumn ! I love thy bower
 With faded garlands drest:
 How sweet, alone to linger there
 When tempests ride the midnight air,
 To snatch from mirth a fleeting hour,
 The sabbath of the breast.
 
 Autumn ! I love thee well;
 Though bleak thy breeze blow,
 I love to see the vapors rise,
 And clouds roll wildly round the skies,
 Where from the plain the mountains swell
 And foaming torrents flow.
 
 Autumn ! thy fading flowers
 Droop but to bloom again;
 So man, though doomed to grief awhile,
 To hand on fortune's fickle smile,
 Shall glow in heaven with nobler powers,
 Nor sigh for peace in vain.
  
            [Commentary on the 1827 publication of George Ticknor's 
              The Remains of Nathaniel Appleton Haven. With Memoir of His Life 
               appeared a year after Haven's death. The commentary, no author 
              stated, appears in Vol. 27 (60) of The North American Review, 
              July, 1828, pp. 154-167, at 158, 166] [full-text 
              online]  Poetry Nathaniel A. Haven, "Autumn," Charles James 
              Fox (ed.), The New Hampshire Book. Being Specimens of the Literature 
              of the Granite State 64 (Nashua, New Hampshire: David Marshall 
              & Boston: James Munroe and Company, 1842) [online 
              text] [The editor of The New Hampshire 
              Book, Charles James Fox was also a lawyer 
              and a poet.] Writings N.A. Haven, "Early Settlers of New Hampshire," 
              in Charles James Fox (ed.), The New Hampshire Book. Being Specimens 
              of the Literature of the Granite State 13-20 (Nashua, New Hampshire: 
              David Marshall & Boston: James Munroe and Company, 1842) 
            George Ticknor, The Remains of Nathaniel Appleton 
              Haven. With a Memoir of His Life (Cambridge: Harvard University, 
              1827) [online 
              text]  |