Henry Livingston, Jr.
Henry Livingston's Poetry




Robins! stop your whistling throats
Listen to my sweeter notes;
Cease to hop from spray to spray
While I trill the wedding lay.

Thrushes on the maples' top
For a moment pray-ye stop --

Twitt'ring swallows cease to twitter
Hearken to my ditty sweeter --

Lovesick turtles gently cooing
Leave your honey-suckle wooing --

Little wrens I humbly beg
Take your music down a peg --

Whipperwills sweet bird of gloom,
Stop your loud nocturnal tune;
And ye hooting lovely owls
Listen to my lovelier howls.


The Epithalamium

'Twas summer when softly the breezes were blowing
And Hudson majestic so sweetly was flowing
The groves rang with music & accents of pleasure
And nature in rapture beat time to the measure


When Helen and Jonas so true and so loving
Along the green lawn were seen arm in arm moving
Sweet daffodils, violets and roses spontaneous
Wherever they wandered sprang up instantaneous.

The ascent the lovers at length were seen climbing
Whose summit is grac'd by the temple of Hymen:
The genius presiding no sooner perceived them
But spreading his pinions he flew to receive them:
With kindest of greetings pronounced them wellcome
While hollidays clangor rang loud to the welkin.


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New-York Magazine or Literary Repository
February, 1791

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EPITHALAMIUM

'TWAS summer, when softly the zephyrs were blowing,
And Hudson majestic so sweetly was flowing;
The groves rang with music and accents of pleasure,
And nature in rapture beat time to the measure:
When Strephon and Phillis, so true and so loving,
Along the green lawn were seen arm in arm moving;
Sweet daffodils, violets, and roses spontaneous,
Wherever they rambled sprang up instantaneous.

The ascent the lovers at length were seen climbing,
Whose summit is grac'd by the temple of Hymen:
The Genius presiding, no sooner perceiv'd them,
But spreading his pinions, he flew to receive them;
With kindest of greetings pronounced them welcome;
While holliday's clangour rang loud to the welkin.



Historical Background

This poem celebrated the marriage of Henry's sister Helen and Jonas Platt.

Jonas Platt was born and raised at the family place on the flats along Wappingers Creek, north of Manchester Bridge, and originally owned by Madam Brett. After finishing preparatory studies at a French academy in Montreal, he entered the law office of Richard Varick in New York City and was admitted to the Bar in 1790, the year of his marriage. He was County Clerk of Herkimer County 1791-98, and of Oneida County (after it was set off from Herkimer), 1798-1802. In 1796, he was a member of the State Assembly in Albany and in 1810-13, he represented his constituents in the State Senate. Elected to the U.S. House of Representatives as a Federalist he served throughout the Sixth Congress 1799-1801, and he was an unsuccessful candidate for Governor, in 1810, being defeated for that office by a very small majority by Daniel D. Tompkins, who was running for re-election. He was the first to have proposed a canal from Lake Erie to the Hudson, and his resolution in the Senate was seconded by DeWitt Clinton, whom he had enlisted in the project. In 1814 he became an Associate Justice of the State Supreme Court, with Kent and Spencer as colleagues, and remained in office until the adoption of the Constitution in 1821, of which he was the one of the framers.
(Biog. Cong. Dir. 1934, p. 1416; Platt Lineage, 1891, pp. 117-18).

Helen and Jonas Platt
Biographic Information
Congressional Biography
Playing Host to Washington Irving







        
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