From A Health
I fill this cup to one made up of loveliness alone,
A woman, of her gentle [nature] the seeming paragon;
To whom the better elements and kindly stars have given
A form so fair, that, like the air, \’tis less of earth than heaven.
Her every tone is music\’s own, like those of morning birds,
And something more than melody dwells ever in her words;
The coinage of her heart are they, and from her lips each flows
As one may see the burthened bee forth issue from the rose…
– Edward Coote Pinkney
Edward Coote Pinkney (1802-1828) was born in London to a U.S. Ambassador. He joined the U.S. Navy at the age of fourteen. After ten years, he left the Navy, married Georgiana McCauseland, and became a lawyer in Maryland. After an unsuccessful law practice, he began publishing a semiweekly newspaper in Baltimore. He had a collection of poetry published in 1825; he was primarily influenced by British poets. John Greenleaf Whittier and Edgar Allan Poe were both admirers of his poetry.