Lemuel Perham, Jr.


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The Poets of Maine
A Collection of Specimen Poems from over Four Hundred Verse-Makers of the Pine Tree State.
with 
Biographical Sketches
Compiled by George Bancroft Griffith
Portland, Maine
Elwell, Pickard & Company
Transcript Job Print; Edward Small, Binder.
Copyright by Elwell, Pickard & Co.
1888
page 13-14


Lemuel Perham, Jr.

Born in Farmington, Oct. 7th, 1764, and son of an old Revolutionary solider.  He was 
superior mathematician, a skilled land surveyor, and it has been commonly understood 
that he ran the west line of the town tract, a most arduous undertaking, since the line 
runs over Mts. Abraham, Sugar-loaf, and Bigelow.  Mr. Perham was a fine musician also, 
and a poet of more than local fame.  One of his sons is a druggist at Anoka, Minn. and 
another a civil engineer, who assisted in building the dry dock at Charlestown, Mass., 
and that at Gosport, Va.  The subject of this sketch died Feb. 28th, 1841.

TEMPERANCE.
An Extract.

Fair Temp'rance, thou Goddess, unspeakable worth,
Angelic thy nature, celestial thy birth.;
With prime adoration to Heaven's blest king
Subordinate praises to thee will we bring.
We'll pray to the Father for sake of his Son,
To prosper thy cause, for thy cause is his own,
And hasten millennial glory and bliss,
When Pagan and Jew and all nations are his;
When Bacchus's worshipers will not molest,
No drunken intruder disturbing our rest,
No riotous tumult performed by thy foes,
Nor nightly obtruder to break our repose,
We'll laud thee with sonnets inspired by the Muse,
In thy celebration we'll symphony use;
Our hearts and glad voices volition devotes,
While musical instruments warble the notes.
Thy retinue's tenderness, mildness and love,
And harmlessness equal to that of the Dove,
With wisdom and sanctity, firmness and health,
Frugality, industry, handmaids of wealth,
Benevolence, rectitude, patterns for youth;
Peace, modesty, harmony, prudence and truth;
Thy blessing, O Temp'rance, so vast an amount,
That time's insufficient their numbers to count.

***************'

Ye Bards of both sexes, come lend us a strain,
To celebrate Temp'rance and usher her reign;
Nor let your dumb harps on the willows reclice,
But tune them to temperance whose cause ins divine.
Poetical talent has been much abused,
Made off'rings to vices, to virtue refused;
Has cherished Intemperance, debauch'ry and strife,
Blood-shedding and carnage, destroying man's life;
The worship of Idols in heathenish lands,
The images mounted by impotent hands.
Retrieve the ill uses that Poets have made,
And offer to Temperance and virtue your aid.
Ye females, attend to the Muse in the dales,
And render a tribute as well as the males;
Or from Mount Parnassus or mountain called Blue,*
Invoke the chaste Muse, and her dictates pursue.

*An eminence in the vicinity of Farmington called Blue Mountain.