Born: October 10, 1802, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Died: July 6, 1864, New York City.
Buried: Davenport Cemetery, Davenport, New York.
George was the husband of Mary Worthington Hopkins, and father of Brigadier General William Hopkins Morris.
In early life, George moved to New York, where in 1822 he became editor of the New York Mirror magazine. In 1831, he and Nathaniel Willis co-founded the New York Evening Mirror.
He is best remembered as a poet, Woodman, Spare That Tree being one of his most famous poems.
We were boys together,
And never can forget
The school house near the heather,
In childhood where we met:
Nor the green home, to memory dear,
Its sorrows and its joys,
Which called the transient smile or tear
When you and I were boys.
We were youths together,
And castles built in air;
Your heart was like a feather,
While mine was dashed with care.
To you came wealth with manhood’s prime,
To me it brought alloys
Ne’er imagined in the primrose time
When you and I were boys.
We’re old men together;
The friends we loved of yore,
With leaves of autumn weather,
Are gone for evermore.
How blessed to age the impulse given—
The hope time ne’er destroys—
Which led our thoughts from earth to heaven,
When you and I were boys.
George Pope Morris
The Deserted Bride, and Other Poems, 1838