SEACOAST POETRY

Downtown Portsmouth burned three times in the early 19th century. This anonymous poem appeared in the NH Gazette in 1813, after the third comflagration. New laws then forced builders to use brick, not wood, and the Market Square of today was born out of the ashes of the formely wooden city.

SEACOAST POETRY

A rare poem dedicated to a Seacoast Native American, who unfortunately, never existed. But the legend is worth attention since it’s origins are unknown. The origins of the fictional "Aspinquid" legend on Mount Agamenticus remains a local mystery.

SEACOAST POEMS

Humorist Sam Foss attended Portsmouth High School. That means we can dig out one of his classics whenever we see some connection to current events in the 21st century. Here the Yankee poet worries that a distant war might lead to a closer war. In his case, it turned out to be World War I.

SEACOAST POEMS

Your side lost the election. The weather is getting cold. The wind is high. The flowers are gone and winter is heading your way with a vengeance. To those New Englanders hunkering down, we offer some comfort by NH poet Edna Dean Proctor. It’s always darkest before the dawn, and there’s always Heaven.

SEACOAST POETRY

She was the unflappable queen of Portsmouth poetry, the city's first poet laureate and she worte poems un her 90s until the very day of her death. Here are four of the last two dozen verses by Esther Buffler from her book IT'S ALL AHEAD published posthumously by Phinease Press.

SEACOAST HUMOR POETRY

Another Portsmouth boy makes good. James T. Fields (1817-1881) had a pretty lucky life. His publishing company did very well in Boston. He married the vivacious Annie Fields and hung out in the best literary company. Yet he retained his Northern "yankee" humor as seen in this poem from 1880.

SEACOAST POETRY

This poem draws on the feelings of simultaneous loss and discovery that hovers over every archaeology dig. "Covering / Uncovering" was written during the discovery of an Indian burial on the site of the Seabrook Nuclear Power Plant. The burial had to be quickly preserved to make way for the arriving technology on a site that had been a Native American habitat for thousands of years before.

NH BOOKS

The Granite State used to be connected to African. The White Mountains used to be as tall as the Himalayas. Beavers used to be as big as bears and dinosaurs the size of turkeys. Those are just a few fascinating facts from this history of our rocky state. A whole lot happened here before the arrival of white settlers. 

SEACOAST POETRY

Seacoast poet John Greenleaf Whittier was ahead of his time on the concept of voter rights. Well before the Civil War, he imagined a time when poor and rich, black and white would vote equally. The following poem is from one of his earliest works, Anti-Slavery Poems: Songs of Labor and Reform.

SEACOAST MOVIE TRIVIA

Trivia quiz! How many major films can you name that have connections to this region? The Last Detail, yes. Don’t forget A Separate Piece, The Mighty and Northwest Passage. We can think of about 20. Help us discover more, no matter how tenuous the link.