roved the
stronger attraction, and in 1818 he left his profession to assist in
conducting the then newly founded North American Review. The critical
papers he contributed to it startled the conservative literary circles
by their audacity in defending the new movement in English poetry, and
passing lightly by their idol Pope. Indeed, his unpopularity debarred
him from succeeding the first editor. He withdrew, and began the
publication of The Idle Man in numbers, modeled on Salmagundi and the
Sketch-Book. His contributions consisted of critical papers and his
novelettes 'Paul Felton,' 'Tom Thornton,' and 'Edward and Mary.' Not
finding many readers, he discontinued it after the first volume. He then
contributed for some years to the New York Review, conducted by William
Cullen Bryant, and to the United States Review. In 1827 appeared 'The
Buccaneer and Other Poems'; in 1833 the same volume was enlarged and the
contributions to The Idle Man were added, under the title 'Poems and
Prose Writings.' Seventeen years later he closed his literary career by
publishing the complete edition of his 'Poems and Prose Writings,' in
two volumes, not having materially added either to his verse or
fiction. After that time he lived in retirement, spending his summers in
his seaside home by the rocks and breakers of Cape Ann, and the winters
in Boston. He died in 1879.

Dana's literary activity falls within the first third of this century.
During that period, unproductive of great work, he ranked among the
foremost writers. His papers in the North American Review, as the first
original criticism on this side of the Atlantic, marked an era in our
letters. He was one of the first to recognize the genius of Wordsworth
and of Coleridge; under the influence of the latter he wrote the poem by
which he is chiefly known, 'The Buccaneer.' He claimed for it a basis of
truth; it is in fact a story out of 'The Pirate's Own Book,' with the
element of the supernatural added to convey the moral lesson. His verse
is contained in a slender volume. It lacks fluency and melody, but shows
keen perception of Nature's beauty, especially in her sterner, more
solemn moods, and sympathy with the human heart. Dana was not so much a
poet born with the inevitable gift of song (he would otherwise not have
become almost silent during the last fifty years of his life), as a man
of strong intellect who in his youth turned to verse for recreation.

Though best known by his