Joaquin Miller was the penname of the American eccentric and poet, Cincinnatus Heine (or Hiner) Miller.

Miller was born in Indiana in 1837 or 1841.  As a young man, he moved to Oregon and later to California where he had a variety of occupations, including that of a mining-camp cook who came down with scurvy from eating what he cooked.  After spending several years in New York and Europe, he ultimately settled in Oakland, California, where he grew fruit and published his poems. Called (primarily by himself) the "Poet of the Sierras" he was more of a celebrity in Europe than in his native United States.  A 2004 Conference on Miller referred to him as “Poet of the Sierras, the founder of California’s Arbor Day, prose stylist extraordinaire, horse thief, judge, Pony Express rider, newspaper editor, critic, gold miner, successful playwright, champion of Native American rights, Indian fighter, rogue and hero…. His adventures through Oregon, Idaho, and Northern California brought him fame in England, notoriety in America and provided fodder for much of his poetry and prose.”  However, some literary critics felt that he was a first-class self-promoter, but a second-rate poet.

Joaquin Miller died in February 1913.  A few years after his death, The City of Oakland transformed his cottage, grounds (which he called “The Hights”), and 500 adjoining acres into a park.  An estimated six million visitors utilize the park annually.

 

Poems by Joaquin Miller

Yosemite

Sound! Sound! Sound!
O colossal walls and crown’d
In one eternal thunder!
Sound! Sound! Sound!
O ye oceans overhead,
While we walk, subdued in wonder,
In the ferns and grasses, under
And beside the swift Merced!

Fret! Fret! Fret!
Streaming sounding banners, set
On the giant granite castles
In the clouds and in the snow!
But the foe he comes not yet,--
We are loyal, valiant vassals,
And we touch the trailing tassles
Of the banners far below.

Surge! Surge! Surge!
From the white Sierra’s verge
To the very valley blossom.
Surge! Surge! Surge!
Yet the song bird builds a home,
And the mossy branches cross them,
And the tassled tree tops toss them
In the clouds of falling foam.

Sweep! Sweep! Sweep!
O ye heaven born and deep,
In one dread unbroken chorus!
We may wonder or we may weep,--
We may wait on God before us;
We may shout or lift a hand,--
We may bow down and deplore us,
But we may never understand.

Beat! Beat! Beat!
We advance, but would retreat
From this restless, broken breast
Of the earth in a convulsion.
We would rest, but dare not rest,
For the angel of expulsion
From this Paradise below
Waves us onward and . . . we go.

 

Dead In The Sierras

His footprints have failed us,
Where berries are red,
And madroños are rankest.
The hunter is dead!

The grizzly may pass
By his half open door;
May pass and repass
On his path, as of yore;

The panther may crouch
In the leaves on his limb;
May scream and may scream,--
It is nothing to him.

Prone, bearded and breasted
Like columns of stone;
And tall as a pine--
As a pine overthrown!

His camp-fires gone,
What else can be done
Than let him sleep on
Till the light of the sun?

Ah, tombless! what of it?
Marble is dust,
Cold and repellent;
And iron is rust.

 

The California Poppy

The golden poppy is God's gold,
The gold that lifts, nor weighs us down,
The gold that knows no miser's hold,
The gold that banks not in the town,
But singing, laughing, freely spills
Its hoard far up the happy hills;
Far up, far down, at every turn, --
What beggar has not gold to burn!

 

Joaquin Miller poems from

The Complete Poetical Works of Joaquin Miller
(San Francisco: Whitaker and Ray, 1902)

Joaquin miller – image credits

Miller multiple images – from The Complete Poetical Works of Joaquin Miller (San Francisco: Whitaker and Ray, 1902)

Joaquin at cabin – From Francis Whiting Halsey (editor), American Authors and their Homes (New York: James Potts and Company, 1901)

Miller portrait (Old man)  - Washington, D.C. – Library of Congress

Miller portrait (standing)  -- from Oregon Historical Society Collections

Miller as Young man – From the Oakland Public Library History Room Collections