Joaquin Miller
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"Cincinnatus Heine Miller" , better known by his pen name "Joaquin Miller" , was a colorful United States/American poet and frontiersman. He is nicknamed the "Poet of the Sierras" after the Sierra Nevada (U.S.)/Sierra Nevada, about which he wrote in his Songs of the Sierras (1871).

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'Tis midnight now. The bend and broken moon, batter'd and black, as from a thousand battles, hangs silent on the purple walls of Heaven.

All honor to him who shall win the prize,'The world has cried for a thousand years;But to him who tries and fails and dies,I give great honor and glory and tears.

The soul that feeds on books alone --/ I count that soul exceeding small / That lives alone by book and creed, --/ A soul that has not learned to read.

O woman, born first to believe us; Yea, also born first to forget; Born first to betray and deceive us, Yet first to repent and regret.

Is it worthwhile that we jostle a brother, Bearing his load on the rough road of life? Is it worthwhile that we jeer at each other, In blackness of heart - that we war to the knife? God pity us all in our pitiful strife.

That man who lives for self alone - lives for the meanest mortal known.

Let us go and talk with the poets. (on arriving in San Francisco).