Henry Livingston, Jr.
1791 New-York Magazine; or Literary Repository



Since Rebus and solution by different authors, they deserve fresh look


Van Deusen-Kosinski Collection





New-York Magazine; or, Literary Repository
May, 1791, p.298

Solution to the Rebus
by N.H.W.


GRAVITATION's the power which acts on the spheres;
    The Earth is a planet well known;
On Olympus's mount all the deities met,
    When Jove gave command from his throne;
By refraction of light the bright Rainbow is form'd;
    For orators Greece was renown'd;
Dianna's great temple at Ephesus stood,
    Which Herostratus burnt to the ground:
Brave Wolfe was the gen'ral who fell at Quebec;
    Jason sought in the Argos the fleece;
In poetry Sapphic the ancients much wrote,
    Invented by Sappho of Greece.
Bold Hector, the Trojan, for valour was fam'd;
    Ulysses was Ithaca's boast;
The patriarch Noah, sublimely did sail
    O'er the earth which in waters was lost.
At Gideon, the sun, the bright regent of day,
    Stood still at a Joshua's commands;
Leonidas fought at Thermopyla's straits,
    When attack'd by the Persian bands.
Old Orpheus, by his sweet music we're told,
    Restrain'd the grim furies of hell;
The improvements in science which Newton has made,
    No langauge or tongue can ere tell.
The initials of these, if in order you place,
    They'll shew you a man of great fame,
Who rescu'd Columbia from death and disgrace -
    GEORGE WASHINGTON is the blest name.
N.H.W.



The style of this solution is not much like Henry's poetic style. There's a simplicity of sentence structure and a repetition of the beginning of lines (starting nouns or starting prepositions) that you wouldn't expect from Henry.

Compare this with the vitality that results from the variety in the beginning of lines in Henry's Apollo Rebus.








        
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