1864 "The Tress of Golden Hair," by Ellen Clementine Howarth (1827-1899)
Source, Ellen Clementine Howarth, The Wind Harp, and Other Poems, (Philadelphia: Willis P. Hazard, 1864), p. 190.

This poem appeared in Clementine Howarth's first book of poetry, The Wind Harp and Other Poems, published in 1864. The volume included numerous poems of sentiment of which this is one, as well as religious poems and patriotic poems. Published during the Civil War, the collection included several poems about war and the death of loved ones. Howarth was born in Cooperstown, NY, the daughter of a calico-printer. After her marriage in 1845 to an English calico printer, she and her husband settled in Trenton where they struggled to make a living, and she helped support the family by caning chairs. Howarth wrote her poems around the edges of her hard-working life, keeping a pencil and paper nearby in case inspiration came while she was doing the laundry or other chores. "The Tress of Golden Hair" and other Howarth poems have been set to music by contemporary New Jersey composer Godfrey Schroth.