Introduction

Biography

Sam was the son of Dy­er Foss and Pol­ly Har­dy, and hus­band of Car­rie M. Co­nant, a min­is­ter’s daugh­ter.

He lost his mo­ther at age four, worked on his fa­ther’s farm and went to school in the win­ter.

He gra­du­at­ed from Brown Uni­ver­si­ty, Pro­vi­dence, Rhode Is­land, in 1882, and was con­sid­ered il­lus­tri­ous enough to war­rant hav­ing his name in­scribed on the mace.

In 1898, he became li­brar­i­an at the pub­lic li­bra­ry in So­me­rville, Mas­sa­chu­setts.

Foss used to write a po­em a day for the news­pa­pers, and his five vol­umes of col­lect­ed poe­try are of the frank and home­ly com­mon man va­ri­ety. Among Foss’ best known po­ems are The House by the Side of the Road, The Com­ing Am­er­ican, and Two Gods.

Works

• Back Coun­try Po­ems (Bos­ton, Mas­sa­chu­setts: Pot­ter Pub­lish­ing, 1892)
• Whiffs from Wild Mea­dows, 1895
• Dreams in Home­spun, 1897
• Songs of War and Peace, 1899
• Songs of the Av­er­a­ge Man, 1907