Item #44944 [Manuscript Poem beginning] "From chaos and from darkness hurl'd / When men first landed on this world...." Anonymous.
[Manuscript Poem beginning] "From chaos and from darkness hurl'd / When men first landed on this world...."

[Manuscript Poem beginning] "From chaos and from darkness hurl'd / When men first landed on this world...."

[1821]. 1 sheet. 11.5 x 7 inches. Very good, edge worn and creased, light soiling, primarily to folds, contents clean. Item #44944

Undated, untitled copy of 38 line poem with hints of Milton's Paradise Lost. At the head of the document where a title should be, reads "Uncle Sam's Looking Glass and political state almanack calculated for the meridian of N. York Januy 1, 1821"; and on the side margin, "Johnston's Almanac / NY / 1821". Neither can be located in OCLC or other sources. The poem begins:

"From chaos and from darkness hurl'd
When men first landed on this world
From what or who from when or where
The neither knew nor did he care
He eat and drank and slep't at ease
Beneath the shade of Eden's trees
And seated on his sylvan thrown
Suvey'd the spatious globe his own..."

The verso is covered with penmanship practice of a sort, with names, partial names, and many scribbles. The only name that is clear is George Crowninshield at the center top and a reference to Harvard at the bottom. The Crowninshield family had close ties to Harvard (There were many Georges, but in 1830 the disreputable scions of this eminent Salem family, Richard and George, were involved in the sensational murder of Captain Joseph White which influenced Poe's “The Tell-Tale Heart”).

Price: $175.00

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