Dartmouth's Poet Laureate

At Commencement in 1885 Richard Hovey delivered a dissertation on Victor Hugo and graduated with final honors in History and English, Cum Laude in English, and a Phi Beta Kappa key.

Men who were in college with Hovey have remarked that despite his brilliant grades, Dick never seemed to be a grind. He would come back from his summer vacation with the announcement that he wasn't going to crack a book during the semester and would be true to his word, at least as far as could be discovered. Yet he maintained his high scholastic standing. Nor was Dick averse to joining the boys for a "party." Not rum, but whiskey, generally Bourbon, was the prevailing favorite and Dick had no scruples about consuming his share. A story is told about the time he "borrowed" one of Dr. Frost's coffins from the Medical School and was discovered with a friend sliding down Observatory Hill in it.

He was brilliant but carefree and remained so most of his life. Money matters were little of his concern so long as his family could support him and even later Dick Hovey was liable to turn up just off a cattle boat from Europe and every inch of him looking like it. At college he sometimes was a poseur, dressing himself in cowboy clothes and high boots, probably because his brother was at the time driving a mail coach in the far West. On other occasions he dressed himself like Oscar Wilde in a flowing tie and knee breeches. He was never an outdoor man in the sense of being a hardy woodsman, but he was able to appreciate and describe with more feeling than most his experiences with nature and his devotion to Dartmouth.

While in college Dick Hovey lived in four or five places but "the room I look back on as mine," he says, "was the corner room nearest Thornton in the top story of Reed Hall." Here Hovey studied and had his parties and here he composed many of his verses. According to one story it was in this room that Hovey wrote the original of "Men of Dartmouth." The song did not appear in its final form until about ten years later, but the first draft was written here during a moment while some friends were playing poker and they refused to admit Hovey to the game because he was planning to become a priest. They said that they didn't want him to jeopardize his, and their, chances of entering heaven. While the game was going on Dick sat down at his desk and then read aloud to his friends the first version of the alma mater of the College. It was later revised but the first thought was put into words in Reed Hall.

As an undergraduate Hovey had seriously considered entering the priesthood of the Episcopalian Church. It has been suggested that the ceremony of the church attracted Hovey more than devotion to intense religious dogma for he had always evinced a strong feeling for the dramatic. A contemporary and friend has stated that Hovey was really a Catholic in everything but name.

His philosophy has been excellently expressed in his poetry and the following quotation from the "Stein Song," written when he had more resolved himself and developed a philosophy, shows why he was attracted to the church and yet failed to remain within it.

It shows that he was fundamentally interested in the mystic and yet virile attraction of the natural in man rather than dogmatic theological creed.

"For we know the world is gloriousAnd the goal a golden thing,And that God is not censoriousWhen his children have their fling,And life slips its tetherWhen the boys get togetherWith a stein on the table in the fellowshipof spring."

Thus it was that after studying at the Washington Art Student's League during 1885-86, and spending a summer studying Hebrew at Harper's Summer School at Newton Centre, Massachusetts, Hovey entered the General Theological Seminary of the Episcopal Church at Chelsea Square in New York City.

But the high-spirited young man had ideas which differed from those of the institution. He devoted himself seriously to certain phases of the curriculum, but neglected those which did not appeal to him. He was an excellent Hebrew student and particularly active in the dramatic rites of the church which gave expression to his imagination and his own especially keen appreciation of the dramatic.

Hovey did not make friends readily among the other students of the seminary and we have every reason to believe that his independent ideas and lack of conformity to some rules of the institution, led to his departure. He describes the situation as follows: "As a consequence of an incompatibility of temper between myself and the authorities of the seminary, I left that institution to pursue my studies privately under the Bishop's direction."

This arrangement proved unsatisfactory and Hovey tells us again that "practical necessity compelled my attention in other directions and I gradually drifted out of the intention of becoming a priest without exactly knowing how or when I did so."

The summer of 1887 found Richard Hovey again at Newton Centre, where he met two men who became his best friends. Tom Buford Meteyard, the painter, and Bliss Carmen, the poet, proved kindred spirits and admirable companions. In much the same exuberance that Hovey and Bliss Carmen later wrote "Vagabondia," the three often set out on long hikes together, wandering through Maine, Massachusetts, and, indeed, all New England.

Hovey devoted the next few years of his life to itinerant acting in order, as he explained, to obtain experience for the writing of plays. He also lectured at the Columbian University in Washington and at Davidson's Summer School of Philosophy at Farmington, Connecticut, returning to the stage several times for added experience. At the same time he was contributing articles to various periodicals. Plans for a series of Arthurian Legends treated in much the same style as Tennyson's were prepared in January of 1889 and Hovey commenced his "Quest of Merlin."

Always a traveler, Dick followed his star to Europe in 1891 where he spent a year in England and France. According to an intimate friend he returned several times to Europe, traveling on cattle boats, and returning home only when his finances were exhausted. On one of these trips he met Mrs. Henriette Russell whom Hovey described as "the leading living representative of the philosophy and art teaching of Francois Delsarte," and they were married in Boston, in 1893 at the home of Benjamin Tenney '83. Their alliance resulted in a son, Julian Richard Hovey, who was born in France. After a short career at Dartmouth as a member of the class of 1916, Julian left college before graduation and is now living in California.

The last years of Dick Hovey's short life were spent in educational and literary work. At Barnard College in New York City he held the position of professor of English Literature and at the same time he lectured at Columbia University. His writings included several plays, part of the proposed series of Arthurian Legends, translations, songs and poetry. But at this period, when his genius seemed to be broadening and a more brilliant career about to open, Dartmouth's Poet Laureate suddenly died. An operation for varicose veins had required hospitalization for about a week and Dick was well on the road to recovery when he was seized with a stroke of apoplexy while walking in a ward of the hospital and died almost immediately. The operation had apparently been successful but a blood clot had formed and traveling to his brain had caused death.

The body was buried at Andover, Massachusetts, near the former home of his mother and other kinfolk.

HOVEY'S WRITING

Dartmouth's famous songs, justly rated the best of any college, are the works of Hovey which make him so well known to Dartmouth men. His "Songs of Vagabondia," written with Bliss Carmen have made him a favorite poet of many Americans. But like so many other great authors, Hovey based his own claim to fame on the Arthurian Legends and his plays, which are hardly known today. His place in American literature is becoming more prominent and more sure with the passing of time and the discovery of his work by more and more people.

As a child of eleven Richard Hovey had surprised his parents by composing, setting up, printing and copyrighting a book of poetry. While an undergraduate at Dartmouth College he was a constant contributor to The Dartmouth, as well as writing his history of the sophomore class and working for the Aegis. It has been said that most of his short poems and sonnets appeared in The Dartmouth, but there is an immaturity about these works that separate them sharply from the later productions.

Professor C. F. (Clothespins) Richardson is the man to whom Richard Hovey gives credit for first encouraging him to pursue his literary endeavors. Professor Richardson once told a friend of Hovey's that he had two qualifications for becoming a genius, the first being that he possessed the erratic, sometimes unbalanced temperament of the genius, and secondly that he was a most brilliant student. It had been Hovey's "Sonnets to Swinburne" which had appeared in The Dartmouth for March a, 1883 that brought Professor Richardson's praise.

After leaving Dartmouth the poet matured in many ways and resolved his ideas into a definite philosophy of life. He stated in the Dartmouth Literary Magazine, "It is not my mission to write elegant canzonattas for the delectation of the dilettante, but to comfort the sorrowful and hearten the despairing, to champion the oppressed and declare to humanity its inalienable rights, to lay open to the world the heart of man-all its heights and depths, all its glooms and glories, to reveal the beauty in things and to breathe into my fellows a love of it."

Louis Untermeyer says in his ModernAmerican Poetry that "his lines fling themselves across the page; dance with intoxicating abandon; shout with wild irresponsibility; leap, laugh, carouse and carry off the reader in a gale of high spirits."

"Men of Dartmouth," Hovey's most famous Dartmouth song was roughly draf ted while he was still a sophomore in college from all that can be ascertained. It was not completed in its final form until 1894, however, when it won a prize offered by the Dartmouth Club of Boston and another prize offered by Henry M. Brubaker '63 of Bowe, N. H„ for the best poem suitable for a Dartmouth song. The poem first appeared in the Dartmouth LiteraryMagazine in June of 1894 and was accompanied by an article on "Dartmouth's Laureate," by Edwin Osgood Grover '94, who later edited Dartmouth Lyrics. A musical setting for the words was composed in 1898 by Addison F. Andrews '78 but a later one by Harry R. Wellman '07 composed in 1908 has become more popular.

THE "WINTER SONG"

The "Hanover Winter Song" was written at the suggestion of Edwin O. Grover '94 when he was compiling his book of Dartmouth songs which was published in 1898. Grover states that "As Hovey's profession was that of letters, he was paid for this song, also for 'Eleazar Wheelock' and other songs written for the editor. Hovey arranged for the musical setting by the noted composer Frederick Field Bullard."

"Eleazar Wheelock" was also written for Grover's collection of songs and set to music by Miss Marie Wurm, an English composer and friend of Hovey's.

"The Dartmouth Stein Song" is another of the best known and is easily recognizable for the famous lines:

"For its always fair weatherWhen good fellows get together,With a stein on the table and a goodsong ringing clear."

These Dartmouth songs together with many other poems of the same vein are included in his collection written jointly with Bliss Carmen. "The Laurel," written in 1889, received notice from the critics as being Hovey's first literary work of note. "Seaward," an elegy for a friend, is among his early and more well known poems, while "Launcelot and Guenevere," "The Quest of Merlin" and several other Arthurian poetical dramas, which we have mentioned earlier, were popular at the time of their publication, but have not worn well with time. They were not in the true spirit of Hovey and suffer from the fact that he tried to be too intellectual and follow the pattern of Tennyson, whereas his talent was so much more suited for the rollicking verses of the open road.

In closing we quote a poem that seems most typical of the careless spirit of the poet, of the restless urge that his work delights in expressing, and the appreciation of the beauty of nature wherein lay so much of his genius.

The Sea Gypsy

I am fevered with the sunset,I am fretful with the bay,For the wanderthirst is on meAnd my soul is in Cathay.

There's a schooner in the offingWith her topsails shot with fire,And my heart has gone aboard herFor the Islands of Desire.

I must forth again tomorrow!With the sunset I must beHull-down on the trail of raptureIn the wonder of the sea.

(The author wishes to express thanks to Sydney E.Junkins '87 and Dr. Oilman D. Frost '86 for materialused in this article which without their help might otherwise have been inaccessible.)

BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION MAY 2 Plans are under way for observance by theBoston Alumni Association of RichardHovey's 75th birthday May 4 in memoryof the famous poet. Portrait reproducedabove was painted by George A. Thompson '92 and was the gift recently of the PsiUpsilon fraternity to the College, throughthe kindness of Sydney E. Junkins '87.

RICHARD HOVEY AFTER GRADUATION FROM COLLEGE