John Quincy Adams Autograph Poem Signed. One page, 3.5" x 7", n.p., February 25, 1840. Adams once wrote that could he have "chosen my own genius and condition, I would have made myself a great poet." While he never achieved fame as such, he was a voracious reader and writer of poetry. Here he muses on "The Beard / Past, Present and Future / A Yankee Notion," in full:

"When Greece and Rome were on the stage, 
And wisdom was abundant,
The beard bespoke a heavy page,
Of intellect redundant.
But wisdom now, is not somehow
So precious as a guinea;
And thus you say, in this our day
A beard denotes a ninny."

Written on colored paper which once held lacy edges (only the upper edge retains the lace pattern). Smoothed folds; slight separation of the lower fold at the right edge. Minor paper loss near the upper right corner; lower right corner damaged. Scattered spots of light foxing and ink dots.