FOR BETTER OR VERSE

So much about the Seacoast inspires great poetry -- from sea chanties to shipwreck ballads to modern verse. This section features the work of local writers young and old, famous and obscure.
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POEMS LISTED BY TITLE

• Here Comes the Old Man Now 
• Saint Aspinquid
• Take Heart
• The Poor Voter on Election Day
• Evangeline
• Annie Fields Boston Marriage
• Paul Revere's Other Ride
• NH's Nine State Songs
• Song for Sons of Liberty
• The Lucky Horseshoe
• Last Poems of Esther Buffler
• Shillaber's "Rhymes With Reason"
• The "Other" Lady Wentworth
• The Old Man of the Mountains
• The Swallow,The Butcher Bird,
• The kingfisher & The Burgomaster Gull
• Light into Darkness
• Big Red & Canned Heat
• The Coming War
• The Last Request, To a Beautiful Lady,
• Sorrow, A Sail on the Piscataqua,
• Luff When You Can, Midnight Musings
• Off Scarborough
• Frenchman's Lane
• The New Wife & The Old
• Hero's Ode
• The Noble Sailor
• On the Closing of Richardson's Market
• Three Norwegians at the Isles of Shoals
• Story of a Bad Boy
• Two Poems for John Paul Jones
• Connoisseur
• Hidden Gold
• Ona, Washington's Runaway Slave
• Lines Composed on the Unhappy Sufferers of Portsmouth
• Ballad of Ruth Blay
• The Balled of Jack Ringbolt
• The Old House
• "A Tryst"
• Ballad of "The Ranger Flag"
• Land-locked
• Sandpiper
• Alemaker Frank Jones Brewery Song, (1880)
• Wreck of the "Segumtum"
• The Spaniards' Graves
• The Railroad Through the Farm
• The Locomotive and the Snow-flakes
• The Changeling (two versions)
• The Vane of the Old North Church
• The Wreck of Rivermouth
• Hampton Beach
• Old Ironsides
• Lady Wentworth
• Ballad of Louis Wagner
• Ballad of the Squalus
• New Hampshire
• Covering/Uncovering

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  POEMS LISTED BY AUTHOR

• JOHN ALBEE
  Saint Aspinquid
• THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH
  The Old House
  Old Town by the Sea
  Story of a Bad Boy
• ANONYMOUS
  Song for the Sons of Liberty (1766)
  Lines Composed on the Unhappy Sufferers of Portsmouth
• CHARLES W. BREWSTER
  The Locomotive and the Snow-flakes
  The Vane of the Old North Church
  
  
• ESTHER BUFFLER
  Selections from "It's All Ahead"
• DANIEL DROWN
  Light into Darkness
• JAMES T. & ANNIE FIELDS
  To --------, Sleeping
  The Lucky Horseshoe
• SAM FOSS
  The Coming War
  The Railroad Through the Farm
• R. J. GILKER
  John Paul Jones House
• NANCY GROSSMAN
  Paul Revere's Other Ride
  
• M. O. HALL
  Ona, Washington's Runaway Slave
  
  
• BRET HARTE
  Off Scarborough
• DR. JOHN F. HOLMES
  Old New Hampshire (state song)
• OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES
  Old Ironsides
• JAMES KENNARD JR.
  The Wreck of the "Seguntum"
  The Ballad of Jack Ringbolt
  MORE POEMS: Last Request, Sorrow,
  To a Beauriful Lady, Midnight Muscing,
  Luff When You Can, Sail on Piscataqua
• ALBERT LAIGHTON
  Ballad of Ruth Blay
• HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW
  On the Trail of Evangeline
  Lady Wentworth
• JOHN LOTHROP
  Hero's Ode
• JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL
  The Changeling
• CLARA LYNN
  Ballad of "The Ranger Flag"
  Hidden Gold
• JOHN PERRAULT
  Ballad of Louis Wagner
  Ballad of the Squalus
  Here Comes the Old Man Now
• NORA PERRY
  Lady Wentworth
• EDNA DEAN PROCTOR
  Take Heart
• J. DENNIS ROBINSON
  Covering/Uncovering
  On the Closing of Richardson's Market
  
  
• MIKE ROGERS
  Big Red & Canned Heat
• B P SHILLABER
  Frenchman's Lane
  Mysterious Rappings,
  The Consumptive,
  Ballad of the Piscataqua,
  The Old Printer

• MRS SIGOURNEY
  The Noble Sailor
• CELIA THAXTER
  The Butcher Bird, The Swallow,
  The Burgomaster Gull & The Kingfisher
  Three Norwegians at the Isles of Shoals
  A Tryst
  Land-locked
  Sandpiper
  The Spaniards' Graves
  Connoisseur
• JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER
  The Poor Voter on Election Day
  The New Wife & The Old
  The Changeling
  Hampton Beach
  New Hampshire
  The Wreck of Rivermouth
• BENJAMIN COLLINS WOODBURY
  To John Paul Jones