Elizabeth Akers Allen

Elizabeth Akers Allen (pen name, Florence Percy; October 9, 1832 – August 7, 1911) was an American poet and journalist. Her early poems appeared over the signature of "Florence Percy", and many of them were first published in the Portland Transcript. She came to Portland, Maine in 1855, and a volume of her fugitive poems appeared in that city just before her marriage to sculptor Paul Akers, whom she accompanied to Italy, and buried there. For several years, she was on the editorial staff of the Portland Advertiser. She wrote for many leading magazines, and several editions of her collected poems were published. She later resided in Ridgewood, New Jersey for several years.

Early life Elizabeth Anne Chase was born in 1832 in Strong, Maine. The first couplet runs:

Composer Kate Lucy Ward also set Allen's poem Do Not Look Long at Life's Sorrow to music.

During the Civil War, in 1863, Allen had an appointment as a government clerk in the War Office in Washington, D.C., (1885) Two Saints (1888) The High-Top Sweeting, and Other Poems (1891) The Proud Lady of Stavoven (1897) The Ballad of the Bronx (1901) The Sunset Song, and Other Verses (1902)