Birth date: 
1847
Death date: 
1920
Birth town: 
Country: 
USA

Julia Ann Moore, the "Sweet Singer of Michigan", born Julia Ann Davis in Plainfield Township, Kent County, Michigan (December 1, 1847–June 5, 1920], was an American poet, or more precisely, poetaster.

Some comparison to William McGonagall is worth making. Unlike McGonagall, Moore commanded a fairly wide variety of meters and forms, albeit like Emily Dickinson the majority of her verse is in the ballad meter. Like McGonagall, she held a maidenly bluestocking's allegiance to the Temperance movement, and frequently indited odes to the joys of sobriety. Most importantly, like McGonagall, she was drawn to themes of accident, disaster, and sudden death; as has been said of A. E. Housman's A Shropshire Lad, in her pages you can count the dead and wounded. Edgar Wilson Nye called her "worse than a Gatling gun".

Her chief claim to contemporary note, however, is that she inspired Mark Twain to create the character of Emmeline Grangerford in Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Grangerford's funereal ode to Stephen Dowling Botts.

Moore was also the inspiration for comic poet Ogden Nash, as he acknowledged in his first book, and whose daughter reported that her work convinced Nash to become a "great bad poet" instead of a "bad good poet".

Poems by this Poet

Displaying 51 - 59 of 59
Poemsort descending Post date Rating Comments
The Southern Scourge 31 July 2013
0
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0
The Temperance Army 31 July 2013
3
Average: 3 (1 vote)
0
The Two Brave Soldiers 31 July 2013
3
Average: 3 (1 vote)
0
To My Friends and Critics 31 July 2013
3
Average: 3 (1 vote)
0
Unfortunate 31 July 2013
4
Average: 4 (1 vote)
0
William House and Family 31 July 2013
4
Average: 4 (1 vote)
0
William Upson 31 July 2013
3
Average: 3 (1 vote)
0
Willie's and Nellie's Wish 31 July 2013
4
Average: 4 (1 vote)
0
Young Henry 31 July 2013
3
Average: 3 (1 vote)
0

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