Hal'leck, FITZ-GREENE (1790-1867), an American poet. He became a clerk in a New York banking house and for years was in the employment of John Jacob Astor. In 1819, poems by him and his friend Drake appeared in the New York Evening Post, under the signature of Croaker & Co., and attracted some attention. It was on the death of Drake that Halleck wrote his most beautiful poem, beginning "Green be the turf above thee." In 1820 he published Fanny, his longest poem, a satire on the follies and fashions of the day. Among his best poems are Marco Bozzaris, To the Memory of Burns, Alnwick Castle and Red Jacket.