s of the Hudson, but
Drake added many pictures suggested by memories of Long Island Sound,
whose waters he haunted with boat and rod. He apologized for this by
saying that the purposes of poetry alone could explain the presence so
far up the Hudson of so many salt-water emigrants. 'The Culprit Fay'
is a creation of pure fancy, full of delicate imagery, and handled
with an ethereal lightness of touch. Its exquisite grace, its delicate
coloring, its prodigality of charm, explain its immediate popularity
and its lasting fame. But the Rip Van Winkle legend is a far more
genuine product of fancy.

Drake's few shorter lyrics throb with genuine poetic feeling, and show
the loss sustained by literature in the author's early death. Best
known of these is 'The American Flag,' which appeared in the Evening
Post as one of a series of _jeux d'esprit_, the joint productions of
Halleck and Drake, who either alternated in the composition of the
numbers or wrote them together. The last four lines only of 'The
American Flag' are Halleck's. The entire series appeared between March
and July, 1819, under the signature of "The Croakers." Literary New
York was mystified as to the authorship of these skits, which hit off
the popular fads, follies, and enthusiasms of the day with so easy and
graceful a touch. Politics, music, the drama, and domestic life alike
furnished inspiration for the numbers; some of whose titles, as 'A
Sketch of a Debate in Tammany' and 'The Battery War,' suggest the
local political issues of the present day. There is now in existence a
handsome edition of these verses, with the names of the authors of the
several pieces appended, and in the case of the joint ownership with
the initials D. and H. subscribed.

Drake's complete poems were not published during his lifetime. Sixteen
years after his death by consumption in his twenty-sixth year, his
daughter issued a volume dedicated to Halleck, in which were included
the best specimens of her father's work. Many of the lesser known
verses indicate his true place as a poet. In the touching poem
'Abelard to Eloise,' in the third stanza of 'The American Flag,' and
in innumerable beautiful lines scattered throughout his work, appears
a genuine inspiration.

In his own day, Drake filled a place which his death left forever
vacant. His rare and winning personality, his generous friendships,
his joy in life, and his courage in the contemplation of his
inevitable fate, still app