PROMETHEUS

Two hundred years ago, the great American poet, James Gates Percival, published his first book of poetry, Prometheus in two parts, together with several poems he included as “lesser works.” In his early 20s, the quixotic and hopelessly possessed Percival, who had just graduated from the School of Medicine at Yale University, was enormously prolific, producing Prometheus and other poems published several years later, perhaps some he wrote as early as a young teenager. His new work quickly propelled him into international fame as one of America’s leading new poets. Originally born in Connecticut, the poet relocated to the Upper Mississippi River Valley in the 1850s to pursue work as a geologist in the Galena mining region and became the first poet of Illinois and Wisconsin. Two hundred years ago, the great American poet, James Gates Percival, published his first book of poetry, Prometheus in two parts, together with several poems he included as “lesser works.” In his early 20s, the quixotic and hopelessly possessed Percival, who had just graduated from the School of Medicine at Yale University, was enormously prolific, producing Prometheus and other poems published several years later, perhaps some he wrote as early as a young teenager. His new work quickly propelled him into international fame as one of America’s leading new poets. Originally born in Connecticut, the poet relocated to the Upper Mississippi River Valley in the 1850s to pursue work as a geologist in the Galena mining region and became the first poet of Illinois and Wisconsin.