American

Richard Henry Wilde

1789–1847


Richard Henry Wilde (1789–1847) was an American lawyer, congressman and poet, born in Dublin, Ireland, and raised in Augusta, Georgia. He represented Georgia in Congress and later settled in New Orleans, where he died of yellow fever.

His short lyric “My Life is Like the Summer Rose”, sometimes called “The Lament of the Captive”, became one of the most widely reprinted American poems of its day.

  1. "My Life is Like the Summer Rose"
  2. Ode to Ease
  3. Solomon and the Genius
  4. A Farewell to America
  5. Napoleon's Grave
  6. To Lord Byron
  7. To the Mocking-Bird

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