- Lincoln’s Letter to Astor, Roosevelt, and Sands 9 N. 1863
- Arnold’s Saint Brandan
- Longing
- Sonnets
J.J. Astor II was the son of the patriarch of the Astor family, and grandfather of J.J. IV, richest man in the world at the time of his death aboard the Titanic. R.B. Roosevelt was Teddy’s uncle and a New York attorney (Britannica, 1962 under TR). Nathaniel Sands has no Wiki page and I do not find mention of him in any of my oldest history books, or encyclopedias. Closest I can come is discovering he built a house in Orange County, New York that is/was now a museum. The letter from Lincoln informs the three that it is “beyond my province to interfere with New York City politics”
Matthew Arnold’s (1822-1888) “Saint Brandan” is a poem. I preferred “Longing,” and his sonnets are good, as well.
Longing
Come to me in my dreams, and then
By day I shall be well again!
For so the night will more than pay
The hopeless longing of the day.
Come, as thou cam'st a thousand times,
A messenger from radiant climes,
And smile on thy new world, and be
As kind to others as to me!
Or, as thou never cam'st in sooth,
Come now, and let me dream it truth,
And part my hair, and kiss my brow,
And say, My love why sufferest thou?
Come to me in my dreams, and then
By day I shall be well again!
For so the night will more than pay
The hopeless longing of the day.
Matthew Arnold is an interesting fellow. He was the son of Thomas Arnold, educator and headmaster of the Rugby School. The headmaster in Tom Brown’s School Days (Thomas Hughes, 1857) was a fictionalized elder Arnold. Matthew visited the States and wrote, Civilization in the United States: First and Last Impressions of America (1888). From Section III: A Word More about America
There you have it! A classic day from The Guide to Daily Reading.
