William Ross Wallace

{{short description|American poet (1819–1881)}} '''William Ross Wallace''' (1819 – May 5, 1881) was an American poet, with Scottish roots, best known for writing "The Hand That Rocks The Cradle Is The Hand That Rules The World".

==Early life== Wallace was born in Lexington, Kentucky in 1819.<ref group=lower-alpha>Wallace's obituary in ''The New York Times'' lists his place of birth as Paris, Kentucky. Most sources state he was born in Lexington, however.</ref> His father, a Presbyterian preacher, died when Wallace was an infant.<ref name="coggeshall">{{cite book| first=William T.| last= Coggeshall| title=Poets and Poetry of the West| url= https://archive.org/details/poetsandpoetryw02cogggoog|publisher=Follett, Foster, and Company|location=New York|year=1860|pages=227–37}}</ref>

Wallace was educated at Indiana University Bloomington and Hanover College, Indiana, and studied law in Lexington, Kentucky.

==Career== In 1841, he moved to New York City, where he practiced law, and at the same time engaged in literary pursuits.<ref name="appleton">{{harvnb|Wilson|Fiske|1891}}.</ref> "Perdita", a poem, was his first work. Published in the ''Union Magazine'', it attracted favorable criticism and was followed by "Alban" (1848), a poetical romance, and "Meditations in America" (1851). Other poems that attained popularity include "The Sword of Bunker Hill" (1861), a national hymn; "Keep Step with the Music of the Union" (1861); "The Liberty Bell" (1862); and his most famous poem, "The Hand That Rocks The Cradle Is The Hand That Rules The World" (1865), a poem praising motherhood.<ref name="appleton"/><ref name= "johannsen">{{cite book|title=House of Beadle & Adams and its Dime and Nickel Novels: The Story of a Vanished Literature|url=https://archive.org/details/houseofbeadleada0000joha|url-access= registration| first=Albert |last= Johannsen|publisher=University of Oklahoma Press|year=1950}}</ref> He contributed to ''Godey's Lady's Book'', ''Harper's Magazine'', ''Harper's Weekly'', the ''New York Ledger'', and the ''Louisville Daily Journal''.<ref name="johannsen"/> William Cullen Bryant said of his writings: "They are marked by a splendor of imagination and an affluence of diction which show him the born poet."<ref name= "appleton"/> Edgar Allan Poe, a friend of Wallace, referred to him as "one of the very noblest of American poets".<ref>{{cite book|first=Nathaniel Parker|last=Willis|author2=James Russell Lowell |title=The Works of the Late Edgar Allan Poe| volume= 3| publisher=J. S. Redfield| year= 1857| pages=240–241}}</ref> Wallace died at his home in New York City on May 5, 1881, a week after suffering a stroke.<ref name="times">{{cite news| title= Death Of Wm. Ross Wallace. Poems That He Wrote, His Illness, And His Friendship With Poe|work=The New York Times|date=May 7, 1881| url= https://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9F01E6DA133CEE3ABC4F53DFB366838A699FDE}}</ref> He was working on a book to be titled ''Pleasures of the Beautiful'' at the time of his death.<ref name="times"/>

==Personal life== Wallace married his second wife Ann Polhemus Riker, the daughter of Daniel Riker (1771–1828) and Helen Polhemus (1783–?), in October 1856. They had two daughters and a son.<ref>{{cite web| website= pfaffs.web.lehigh.edu |url= https://pfaffs.web.lehigh.edu/node/54252| title=Wallace, William Ross (1819-1881)| accessdate=May 1, 2020}}</ref>

==Books by Wallace== *''The Battle of Tippecanoe, Triumphs of Science, and Other Poems'' (1837) *''Wordsworth: A Poem'' (1846) *''Alban the Pirate: A Romaunt of the Metropolis'' (1848) *''Meditations in America, and Other Poems'' (1851) *''Prattsville, an American Poem'' (1852) *''The Loved and the Lost'' (1856) *''Progress of the United States: Henry Clay, an Ode "Of Thine Own Country Sing"'' (1856) *''Patriotic and Heroic Eloquence: A Book for the Patriot, Statesman and Student'' (1861) *''The Liberty Bell'' (1862)

==Notes== {{Reflist|group=lower-alpha}}

==References== *{{Appletons'|title=Wallace, William Ross}}

==External links== {{wikisource|works=or}} {{wikiquote}} *{{Gutenberg author|id=43310}} *{{Internet Archive author |sname=William Ross Wallace |sopt=t}} *{{Librivox author |id=4206}} *[https://imslp.org/wiki/Category:Wallace,_William_Ross Works with text by Wallace on IMSLP]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wallace, William Ross}} Category:1819 births Category:1881 deaths Category:19th-century American poets Category:19th-century American male writers Category:Poets from Kentucky Category:Hanover College alumni Category:Indiana University Bloomington alumni Category:American male poets