The New International Encyclopædia/Sprague, Charles

SPRAGUE, sprāg, Charles (1791-1875). An American poet, born in Boston, Mass. Leaving school at an early age, he became a merchant's clerk, and in 1820 teller in a bank. From 1825 to 1865 he was cashier in the Globe Bank of Boston. His literary skill was chiefly shown in occasional poems, which were first collected in 1841. In 1850, 1855, and 1876 editions of his Poetical and Prose Writings were published. Much of his verse is in the familiar rhymed couplet of the eighteenth century, to which period its literary feeling chiefly belongs.