William Bliss Carman (April 15, 1861-June 8, 1929) was a preeminent lyric poet of Canada. A distant relative of Ralph Waldo Emerson, he became well-known as a magazine writer. He was the editor of the New York Independent, editor of the Oxford Book of American Verse, 1927; and contributed verse to the Harvard Monthly. His first volume, Low Tide on Grand Pre, published in 1893, followed by the books of verse: Songs of Vagabondia, 1894-6, 1901; A Winter Holiday; Pipes of Pan; and Ballads of Lost Haven.
In his work, Vestigia, William Bliss Carman wrote:
<I took a day to search for God,
And found Him not. But as I trod
By rocky ledge, through woods untamed,
Just where one scarlet lily flamed,
I saw His footprint in the sod.> 1861WC001
--
American Quotations by William J. Federer, 2024, All Rights Reserved, Permission granted to use with acknowledgement.
Endnotes:
1861WC001. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). William Bliss Carman, Vestigia, st. I. John Bartlett, Bartlett's Familiar Quotations (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1855, 1980), p. 696.