The Emigrant

The Ohio River carries a westward traveller through a landscape crowded with memories of home. In Frederick W. Thomas’s poem, the flowing water becomes a companion to a speaker troubled by illness, separation and uncertainty about his future. Affection for someone known since childhood interrupts his darker reflections, while moonlight, stars and the river’s surface offer moments of hope. The preface explains how stanzas written during the passage gradually grew into the finished work.

Private concerns give way to public ones as the speaker recalls revolutionary leaders and fears political division. His anticipation of a lawyer’s working life brings crowded courts, strenuous argument and admired professional examples into the poem. Memories of friends, shared walks and lively debates restore a more intimate scale. An accompanying memoir outlines Thomas’s life and writing. Readers interested in early American poetry will find a river passage that connects personal vulnerability with professional hopes and patriotic feeling.