JOAQUIN MILLER'S FAREWELL TO BRET HARTE, HIS FAMOUS
CONTEMPORARY IN THE LITERATURE OF THE FAR WEST.
From his cabin on the heights back of Oakland, California, the gray poet
of the Sierras, Joaquin Miller [pronounced "Hwah-keen"], looks down across
San Francisco Harbor and through the Golden Gate.
When word came to Joaquin Miller, in May, 1902, that his friend, Bret
Harte, was dead, he embalmed his grief in the wonderful poem of farewell
here printed. He pictured the somber ship of death traveling silently at
sunset out through the Golden Gate.
The poem originally appeared in the _Overland Monthly_ for September,
1902. The issue was devoted to the memory of Bret Harte, and included
reprints of "The Luck of Roaring Camp," "The Outcasts of Poker Flat,"
"Plain Language from Truthful James," and other of Harte's best work.
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