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Madison Julius Cawein

I lived from 1865-1914. I was from the United States, and am in the Americas category.

Madison Cawein was born in Louisville, Kentucky on March 23, 1865. His father made medicines from herbs and this nurtured Cawein’s love of nature which was later reflected inhis poetry. He worked in a pool hall as an assistant cashier in Cincinnati, Ohio and saved up money so that he could write. He wrote 36 books and 1500 poems and was known as the Keats of Kentucky.

Cawein’s poetry combined his love of nature with mythology and allusion through the traditional approach of classical English and European literature. He gained an international reputation, but was eclipsed as the genre in which he wrote became outmoded.

In 1912 Cawein was forced to sell his Old Louisville home, St James Court as well as some of his library, after losing money in the 1912 stock market crash. In 1914 the Authors Club of New York City placed him on their relief list. He died later that year and was buried in Cave Hill Cemetery.

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  • There was once a little boy —
    So my father told me — who
    221 lines, 3 comments
  • CLOVE-SPICY pinks and phlox that fill the sense
    With drowsy indolence;
    30 lines, 3 comments
  • THERE is a house beside a way,
    Where dwells a ghost of Yesterday:
    33 lines
  • Here is the place where Loveliness keeps house,
    Between the river and the wooded hills,
    13 lines
  • Above her, pearl and rose the heavens lay:
    Around her, flowers flattered earth with gold,
    31 lines
  • I
    Secluded, solitary on some underbough,
    41 lines
  • OH, for some cup of consummating might,
    Filled with life's kind conclusion, lost in night!
    41 lines
  • Below the sunset's range of rose,
    Below the heaven's deepening blue,
    37 lines
  • BLACK clouds hung low and heavy,
    Above the sunset glare;
    12 lines
  • LIFE was unkind to him;
    All things went wrong:
    16 lines

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