Anonymously authored 68 page manuscript rhyming poem about Pittsburgh, love, nature and death, written by a gentleman in Philadelphia in 1818, also in the same hand is an 8 page poem titled "A Dream" dated 1818, an oration on the death of a wife titled "To the Memory of Mary" dated 1819 and perhaps about a Mary Hasland or Husland, also with, in possibly a different hand, a 2 page poem "A Walk at Midnight" dated 1834 in Washington, Pennsylvania and 2 additional pages simply titled "Lines", also with, in a different hand, a 5 page manuscript poem "Silence" dated 1858 in Washington, PA and finally, in a third hand, an undated and untitled 2 page poem praising the work of Christian ministers. Hardcover, full leather binding with gilt design to spine, two old clippings affixed to front pastedown. None of the authors' names are recorded, and all of the poetry is original. The main poem was written in three parts, beginning "It was at midnight, when the moon's pale eye scarce pierced the sable clouds that veiled the sky, and shed her soft and melancholy beam, in mildest lustre, on Ohio's stream; - It was at this solemn, unpropitious hour, we hail'd the banks of the Allegheny's shore. With silent joy, I seis'd my Susan's hand, and led her gladly, to the welcome land; our little William, too, I safely press'd with warm affections, closely to my heart." The third stanza opens "Here, in a vale, does dusky Pittsburgh stand, Begirt by nature, on a pound of land, where tow'ring hills, arrang'd on either side Confine the measure of Ohio's tide." The poem shows definite Romantic influences, "There is a feeling in the hum of mind, a social feeling, that unites mankind, in every bosom burns the sacred flame, the good the bad experience the same..." The second Part begins with a nostalgic ode to Pittsburgh, perhaps the writer's hometown, "How oft to thee, oh Pittsburgh! turns my heart, while memory fails not to perform her part, to urge the smile, or point the painful dart! How oft, in thought, thy gloomy straits explore, or face, with carelys step, thy rugged shore, and view thy hills, in ...grandeur rise, which falling clouds unite to azure skies, as o'er their tops, the whistling ...flies. Yes, Pittsburgh! Yes, tis as in thy dark domain, I first experienced penitential pain, and shed the tears of salutary woe, ah, sacred tears! how copiously they flow!" The third, and final, part speaks more generally about large concepts such as nature and the soul. The poem concludes "There is a light - the Christian knows it best;- There is alight it's in the Christian's breast;- that glows with lustre on life's gloomy path, and shews heavens chast'ning... is not his wrath; its beams are joy to each believing soul; by its sweet unction every wound's made whole. Oh! if its beams are shed upon my mind, and heaven, amidst this...find, an earnest of that bright eternal moon, when human dust tho slumbering now is born, in the bright Resurrection of the just, when earth and ocean yield their sacred trust, then let me yield one lonely murm'ring sigh, but shout for joy that I was born to die, to live forever in the unruffled sky!" The lack of corrections to the text suggests that these were finals drafts, likely edited beforehand. A striking collection, notable for its quality and poetic descriptions of Pittsburgh in the early 19th century, as well as its connection to Washington, PA and Philadelphia. Provenance: from the estate of William Wrenshall Smith (1830-1904) of Washington, PA, who was a cousin, by marriage, of Ulysses S. Grant.