Joseph Rodman Drake

Joseph Rodman Drake (1795-1820) was an early American poet. Born in New York City, he was educated at Columbia College. Together with his friend and fellow poet Fitz-Greene Halleck, he wrote a series of satirical verses for the Evening Post, which were published under the penname "The Croakers." Drake died a year later, at the age of twenty-five. His best-known poems are "The Culprit Fay" and the patriotic "The American Flag."