The Beginnings of Poetry by Francis B. Gummere

Francis Barton Gummere was born March 6, 1855, in Burlington, New Jersey to Samuel James Gummere, the first president of the Haverford College- a school founded by his father, John Gummere. In 1910, Francis Gummere published his translation of Beowulf, a book that is widely regarded as "the most successful attempt to render in modern English something similar to the alliterative pattern of the original" Francis Gummere passed on May 30, 1919, in Haverford, Pennsylvania at 64. His cause of death is unknown. During his life, Francis Gummere produced 9 original works and several translations that are still used today. We are reading excerpts from The Beginnings of Poetry, a book published in 1901 and available through the Gutenberg Project.