A Summer's Afternoon

LibriVox volunteers bring you 9 recordings of A Health by Edward Coote Pinkney. This was the Fortnightly Poetry project for February 19, 2012.

Edward Coote Pinkney was an American poet, lawyer, sailor, professor, and editor. Born in London in 1802, Pinkney made his way to Maryland. After attending college, he joined the United States Navy and traveled throughout the Mediterranean and elsewhere. He then attempted a law career but was unsuccessful and attempted to join the Mexican army, though he never did. He died at the age of 26 in 1828.

Pinkney published several lyric poems inspired primarily by the work of British poets. Critic and poet Edgar Allan Poe supported Pinkney's work after his death, quoting from his poetry in a lecture series. Poe also suggested Pinkney would have been more successful if he was a New Englander rather than a Southern writer.

This poem is taken from the Yale Book of American Verse. 1912, Thomas R. Lounsbury, ed. (1838-1915)