ADAMS, JOHN QUINCY Autograph poem signed.
Sonnet to Miss Margaret L. Gamble. In remembrance of an excursion in company with her and a numerous party to Harper's Ferry, on the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal--May 1834. Single page. written in ink on a sheet headed with an engraved vignette of a fountain in a landscape, with a dog reclining at the base. 7 5/8 x 5 7/8 inches (19.5 x 15 cm); five-line title as given, the fourteen lines of the sonnet followed by his signature. Minor foxing, soiling.

Adams was an enthusiastic and by no means unaccomplished poet, frequently favoring young ladies of his acquaintance with verses, as here. There is a slightly melancholic tinge to the present example; as he writes "Lady! The remnant of my days is small--And many a joyous year, in prospect thine." The conclusion of the sonnet "Remember one, the senior of thy line, Who in the opening blossom of the Spring, Saw that, in thee, to love and to admire; Tho which, his soul, in brighter worlds shall cling-- And when, on Seraph's pinions thou shalt rise, Shall hail Thee, welcome to thy kindred skies" adheres to the same theme of youth and age, not to mention immortality.

Provenance:
Christie's New York, May 19, 2006, lot 53
The Forbes Collection of American Historical Documents, Part IV.

C The Collection of Jay I. Kislak sold to benefit the Kislak Family Foundation

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