author
Benjamin West Ball
1823–1896
A 19th-century American poet remembered for lyrical, imaginative verse, he is best known for Elfin Land: and Other Poems. His work moves easily between nature, feeling, and dreamlike fantasy.
1 Audiobook
Elfin land: and other poems
by Benjamin West Ball
About the author
Little biographical information is readily available about this 19th-century American poet, but library and public-domain records consistently identify him as Benjamin West Ball, born in 1823 and deceased in 1896.
He is best known for Elfin Land: and Other Poems, first published in 1851, and for later work including The Merrimack River. The surviving record suggests a writer drawn to musical language, romantic imagery, and the natural world.
Today, Ball is mainly encountered through digitized archives and public-domain collections, where his poems offer a glimpse of a quieter corner of American literary history.