McDonald Clarke

McDonald Clarke (1798 – 1842) was a poet of some fame in New York in the early part of the 19th century.

Quotes

 * Whilst twilight's curtain spreading far, Was pinned with a single star.
 * Death in Disguise (Boston edition, 1833), line 227. A number of variants are reported:
 * While twilight's curtain gathering far Is pinned with a single diamond star.
 * Now twilight lets her curtain down, And pins it with a star.
 * Compare: "And drew my midnight curtain with fingers bloody red", Thomas Hood, Dream of Eugene Aram; "The moon is a silver pinhead vast, That holds the heavens tent-hangings fast", William R. Alger, "The Use of the Moon", Poetry of the Orient (1865), p. 178.


 * Tis vain for present fame to wish-- Our persons first must be forgotten; For poets are like stinking fish-- They never shine until they're rotten.
 * The Elixir of Moonshine (1820).


 * Ha! see where the wild-blazing Grog-shop appears, As the red waves of wretchedness swell; How it burns on the edge of tempestuous years— The horrible Light-house of Hell!
 * The Rum-hole, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).