RARE “America’s Greatest Sonneteer" Lloyd Mifflin Hand Written Letter For Sale
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RARE “America’s Greatest Sonneteer" Lloyd Mifflin Hand Written Letter:
$349.99
Up for sale a RARE! "America’s Greatest Sonneteer" Lloyd Mifflin Hand Written 3 Page Letter Dated 1911.
ES-3984
Lloyd Mifflin (1846-1921), artist of landscape
and portraiture, was also “America’s greatest sonneteer.” He was born and
lived much of his life in Columbia, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania where he was
free to wander the banks of the Susquehanna River and its tributaries. His
father, J. Huston Mifflin, of English Quaker descent, was Lloyd’s first teacher
in drawing and sketching. His mother, Elizabeth A. Heise, came from
German heritage. She was born in Columbia and died when Lloyd was very
young. His father, a kind and patient man, noted that Lloyd was a rather
weak child and provided equestrian and water sports to improve his health. Lloyd
was taught in the public schools in Columbia, including the Washington
Classical Institute. The Mifflin family supported local education by
bequeathing two houses from their estate, the cottage known as “Norwood” and
the grand house, “Cloverton,” as well as the estate itself. The school
district annually planted a flower on his birthday, September 15, and read one
of his sonnets, “A Picture of My Mother.” At the age of 14, Lloyd undertook
drawing and sketching with his father. He also had Thomas Moran as an
instructor in painting and worked with Isaac Williams of Philadelphia for a
short time. In 1869, he traveled to Europe where he studied with Henry
Herzog at Dusseldorf, Germany. His adventures also took him to Italy, France,
England, and Scotland. He returned to Columbia from Europe and continued
painting scenes from along the Susquehanna—from Cooperstown, NY to the
Chesapeake Bay. As did most other painters of the time, he earned money
from portraiture. In his paintings, he captured the natural with refined color
and light, which yielded firm and balanced forms. He preferred to capture
the peacefulness of a woodland path or other quiet spots, rather than the noise
of an industrial area. Later in his life he liked seasonal paintings,
since they gave him a chance to probe deeper into a philosophical spirit. Mifflin
turned to poetry at the age of 51. According to what he wrote in The
Hills, his first volume of poetry (1896), he claimed that the fumes of the
paint made him sick. In his lifetime he filled twelve books of verse with
two hundred poems and more than six hundred sonnets. He wrote more sonnets
than William Shakespeare, John Milton, and William Wordsworth. John
Keats, however, was his favorite. He preferred Keats for his expression
regarding the love of beauty, both real and ideal; his forms were always poised
and dignified. During this time he also taught himself the art of
etching, using this technique to illustrate The Hills. Mifflin stressed a
strong love of beauty in his poetry as he did in his painting. His
imagination and beautiful sense of harmony characterize his verse. The
main source of his ambition, inspiration and consolation are clearly seen in
The Invocation. He devoted his greatest efforts to the category of the sonnet,
considering it the most distinguished and exalted of all forms of English
poetry. He enjoyed the structure, the metrical and rhythmic beauty, the
plan of metrical rhyme and diction. Mifflin found it much like a musical
composition. Sonnets bipartite in structure, usually have a combination of
eight lines, followed by six. The rhyme schemes and diction, include many
metaphors and an extensive vocabulary. His one hundred and fifty nature
sonnets emphasize the descriptive, not the intuitional. To sample his
poetic styles, one should turn to his three hundred and fifty collected
sonnets, published in 1905 with a second edition in 1907. A large number
came from earlier books. As a poet, Mifflin was an idealist and respected the
ideal of Greek mythological beauty. In the Echoes of the Greek Idylls and
Slopes of Helicon, we find no roughness of spirit. There was a conscience
of a spiritual presence. His religious sonnets were grounded in the faith
of a personal God which related more to his aesthetic feelings than to
traditional Christianity. Themes of life and death occur in many
sonnets. His poetry inspired faith, hope and deep emotion. These
sonnets were more descriptive than philosophical. Mifflin's personal ambition
was to excel; he wanted to write the perfect sonnet. Like the classical
Greeks, he hoped his poetry would obtain an immortality. Mifflin thought the
world had largely ignored him, even though his poetry received high
praise. At his life’s end he changed his opinion and credited his readers
with more accolades than he had earlier thought. Perhaps he was too hard
on himself. Lloyd Mifflin carried the name “Hermit of the hills” who
walked the ‘world as one entranced’ and ‘in life’s turoffer wave’, dropped ‘ the
crown-jewel of his melody.’”
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