Ambrotype of John Orville Terry, c.1855.

John Orville Terry: Oysterponds’ 19th-century Poet

Emily Dickinson, known for her brevity and ambiguity, was certainly an outlier in the world of Victorian poetry. More typical of the time was the work of Oysterponds’ homegrown poet, John Orville Terry. In 1850, at the age of 54, Terry – a sailor by trade – published The Poems of J.O.T.: Consisting of Songs, Satire and Pastoral Descriptions, chiefly depicting the scenery, and illustrating the manners and customs of the ancient and present inhabitants of Long-Island. The length of the title gives readers advance warning that there will be no brevity within the book’s covers! The verses within are long, overwrought, and sentimental, as much poetry was at that time. Yet his poems are also, by turns, charming, funny, and illuminating. The descriptions of Orient life in the first half of the 19th-century are vivid; he writes of the Long Island landscape, local politics, and his family and friends, including Orient’s schoolmaster Augustus Griffin, noting his grace and “jocund face.”

In his diary Griffin extolls Terry’s brilliance and eloquence. “Had Burns, Dryden, or Byron, have written much that he (Terry) has written, we should have heard it cited from a thousand tongues; seen it quoted through the length and breadth of the land, and canonized ‘immortal song.’” This may be a bit of a reach but Griffin, the recorder of local history and customs, obviously found real value in Terry’s work. OHS is lucky to have several copies of Terry’s book in its library collection. His poetry may not live on like Dickinson’s, but his keen observations and florid descriptions of Oysterponds allow us a window into the early life in this region. As Amy Folk, OHS Collections Manager notes, “Terry was a mediocre poet, but a wonderful historian.”

In honor of Spring’s upcoming arrival, we present the first two stanzas of Terry’s poem The First Leaf of Spring. If you are interested in reading more of Terry’s poetry please stop by OHS!

The First Leaf of Spring

The first leaf of spring is unfolding again,

In splendor to flourish, in beauty to reign.

Green among blossoms, and hid among flowers,

Waving on high, on the tree-top it towers.

Sad that a being so beauteous and fair,

Child of the sun and companion of air,

Feeding on light and inhaling the dew,

Should live but one season—alas! is it true?

–John Orville Terry, 1850