Edgefield advertiser. (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, March 23, 1921, Page SIX, Image 6
The) Confederate Poets of
Charleston..
The following brilliant paper was
prepared by Lieut. Francis B. Sim
kins, for the Edgefield chapter TJnit
.ed Daughters of the Confederacy by
.specia linvitation:
Ancient Athens after the storm and
tragedy of the epic struggle for na
.tional existence with the Persians,
.settled down to the peace of the gold
ven age of art and literature of Peri
cles. Safety came with the passing
of the fleeing Xerxes beyond the
Hellespont; then the men of Athens
were able to devote their energies to
sculptoring, and portrayal, in the im
mortal phrase of the Attic drama, the
?subject matter of their recent strug
gle. It has become a truism of liter
ary history that, periods of calm af
ter battle have been the time in which
the great constructive part of the
world's great literature has been cre
ated. The deed is done by the young
man, and the old man lives to tell it
in a manner unequalled by those of
ns who attempt to narrate from the
.experience of others. Charleston,
like Athens, has had her periods of
-epic woe to be followed by golden
alternate periods of peace, wealth
and prosperity. First, came the strug
gle with the Indians and Spaniards,
followed by the quiet prosperity of
Charleston before the American Rev
olution; next, the American Revolu
tion-the bombardment of Moultrie,
the heroism of Jasper, the shelling of
the city and the humiliation of alien
.occupation followed by the brilliant
prosperity of ante-bellum Charleston;
lastly, the War of I860 was Charles
ton's perfect Illiad of woes. Gay
spangled ladies, Owen Wister tells
us, with non-chalant vanity enjoyed
the investment of Sumter from the
vantage of Battery Park; later these
.6ame ladies, with equal non-chalance
in misfortune deprived themselves of
dress and luxury in order to minister
to the wants of the men of Sumter,
Morris Island and Northern Virginia;
wealth and light resolve turned to a
heroism that would have done credit
.to the Spartan matrons of Troy or to
the women of Carthage who sacri
ficed their black locks in order to
make ropes for the defense of the
betrayed city. Surely such a story
of alternate prosperity and sorrow
shonld be a theme to inspire the gen
ius of a native Sophocles, Aristo
phones and Eschylus. Surely from the
.capitol of slavery-the fosterer of
Tvealth, luxury and idleness for intel
lectual pursuits-there has grown
the wild flower of poetry and imagi
native literature. In the beautiful
park of Charleston, her old forts,
?wide country places and ornate town
mansions, her beautiful harbor and
murmuring sea lies covered and un
covered the seeds of song and ro
mance.In her storied churches is the
atmosphere of celestial lyrics. In
-that city have lived far more liter
ary genius (Mrs. Ravenal in Charles
ton: The Place and People follows the
^?abit of many historians in mention
ing only politicians in the chronicle
of greatness) than the average
South Carolinian realizes, although
sound, critical judgment prompts me
?Jto remind the listener that the liter
ature of that city does not bear com
parison with the literature of Athens
-the city of parallel history. It is
my purpose in the limit of the next
few pages to barely indicate the
poetic genius that was a product of
the place and its history.
Preeminent among Charleston's
-poets was of. course, Henry Timrod,
whose tragic life, genius and poetry
is/but an epitome of the dark shad-'
ow under the which the city labored
in the period of the poet's flower,
and whose classic dirge pays highest
tribale to the martyrdom of Confed
erate heroes buried in Magnolia Ceni
etery. For a second time* in "Ode"
ihe wove poetic fancy around this
same beautiful depository of Con
-federate dead and memories. Charles
ton has honored Timrod with a shaft !
on which are emblazoned the above
mentioned best tribute of a Southern
poet to the cause of his state. On the
top of the shaft is a bronze bust of
the poet; in the countenance we can
read the pathetic story of the timid
: genius whose life was blighted by
the blight of the state that he loved
so well, but who at the same time,
could draw words of triumphant pas
! sion out of battle and words of bitter
-anguish out of defeat.
Professor Wendell in his literary
'history of America grants as fine a
nature as Whittier, and "an equal
(honesty in phrasing the noble senti
ment of the South" as the Massachu
setts poet had in phrasing that %f the
North. "Timrod," continues this crit
ic, "was among the few Southern
poets who have phrased the emotions
aroused by the Civil War in a man
ner hardly equalled by the poets of
the North." The poet's works says
Professor Wauchope, is characterized
.""by a sensitive consciousness. His gift
of poetic expression is characterized
by.spontaniety and richness of color;
bis inspiration was drawn from the
soil of his native city and state;
more important, he voices with m
less loyalty the triumphant ecla
his people entering into what the]
?eved to be a holy war of def(
and the sorrow and suffering of
defeat. Beneath the symbolism oi
cotton boll, that a negro has bro
to him as he muses under the g
southern pine, he tells us of the
greatness of the South, then st
gling in battle:
"Ye stars-thou sun-ye clouds
And you, ye winds
Bear witness with me in my s
of praise,
And tell the world that, since
world began,
No fairer a land has fired the pc
lays.
Or given -a home to man."
Yet this poet of beauty an
Keats-like feminine sweetness,'
received tardy fame at the hands
the public; our Southern people h
been too prone to follow north
judgments even when such ju
ment is as in the case of Timi
prejudiced, until of late, by the sh
ow of the Confederacy; not u
1898 was a convenient edition of
poet's works available to the pub
He was born in Charleston in 18
the son of the book binder, hims
one of Charleston's minor poi
Timrod the younger studied law i
der James L. Petigue, but like m
men of poetic genius, found law
compatable with the poetic dispc
tion. He spent ten years of happin
as private tutor basking in the e?
and intelligence of the slave civili:
tion. He, along with Hayne and 1
classic scholar, Gildersleeve, was c
of the coterie of literary lights tl
gathered around William Gilmc
Simms, the Samuel Johnson of Sot
Careena. He died in 1868 broken n
teriaily, physically and spiritually
the great war, not however, before
had used the war as the avenue
his poetic fancy and passion.
Second in importance among t
poets of Charleston and of the Co
federacy was Paul Y. Hayne-Ti]
rod's friend and biographer. He w
born in Charleston in 1830 of ar
tocratic lineage. Not until the W
of the Confederacy did he write
poem that rose above the dead lev
of mediocrity. Having lost all Y
property in the bombardment
Charleston he became a soldier of tl
South and active voicer of its ideal
In stirring war songs he breathes tl
ideals of the South, partisan and mi
itant. After the defeat he establish
himself with thirty dollars and i
health on a barren hill top near Ai
gusta, Georgia, where for many yeai
under the inspiration of a kindl
wife and the quiet after the storn
he westled with poverty and warble
his native wood note wild to the d(
light of the American public. Prc
fessor Wauchope of the Universit
ranks him as the greatest America:
writer of sonnets. For narrative
"MacDonald's Raid" and "Vengeanc
of the Goddess Diana" take high rani
in the literature of a country note?
for narrative. "In Harbor, "By thi
Grave of Timrod," "The Mocking
Bird" and "Unveiled" reveal th?
South in quiet melancholy.
Many other names should be add'
ed to Charleston's list of war poets
"The Civil War," says Professoi
Trent of Columbia University, "add
ed to the stock of American poetry a
mass of verse, sufficient both in quan
tity and quality to warrant a fair
amount of attention from the critic.
It is marked with deep sincerity, and
on the Southern side especially, by
an intensity of emotion that hampers
cool criticism." In this poetry Charles
ton bears off the palm. In addition to
Hayne and Timrod the trumpet call
of the opening conflict is sounded by
Samuel Henry Dickson's "South
Carolina." John Henry Bruns in "The
Foe is at the Gates of Charleston"
gave the city inspiration to resist and
consolation in noble defeat; Joseph
Alston dirges over the Lost Cause
"Sumter" and "Stack Arms"
breathe the air of Charleston under
the excitement of battle. This poet's
"Charge of Hagood's Brigade" tells
the story of the bloody battle around
the city. Yates Snowden, historian of
Charleston in his poem "The South
ern Bourbon" has in it the defiant
challenge of the southern aristocrat
towards those who would disrupt his
institutions, although the author has
done his work since the days of the
war.
The above list does by no means
exhaust the list of Charleston's poets
of th eConfederacy, nor does it give
a hint of the long line of prose writ
ers-novelists, essayists, orators
that have expressed the hopes and
tribulations of Charleston's changing
history in the war and the sequel of
Reconstruction.
Without the limits of this paper it
may be well to mention two names
Simms and Legare-whose poetic
works epitomizes South Carolina civ
ilization in earlier periods of our his
tiry. Simms' chief title to fame is, of
course, in the realm of the novel into '
which he breathes a romantic spirit '
outh Carolina at
AT COLUMBIA, SOUTH CAROLINA
arch 28 to April 2
Featuring :
More than
$35,000.00
In ATTRACTIONS
for the week.
The Fashion Show staged with high class
New York fashion models.
The South Carolina Automobile Show.
The famous Scotch "Kilties'* Band.
The South Carolina "Better Babies" Parade,
March 30th.
The Floral Parade, March 31st.
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South Carolina History in fireworks.
"Palmafesta Delegates" from 45 counties.
The crowning of the Queen of Palmest? who
will be elected from among the 45 counties.
Come to Columbia and Help Choose the Queen
thousands will be here for
The South's Greatest Week of Gaiety
which is poetic in every sense except
the confessional and the metrical. In
"Yemassee," "Katherine Walton"
and the "Casique of Kiawah" and his
many other novels he tells the story
af Charleston in the days of Indian
[.aids, in the Revolution and in the
luiet glory of ante-bellum peace. His
ballads "Fort Moultrie," "The
Swamp Fox" and "The Cassique of
Axcabee" are racy with adventure.
Simms was first to recognize the ge
nus in Timrod and Hayne, and he
?sed fame made in novels to advance
:heir literary standing.
Third in rank among the goodly
:ompany in those that expressed
Charleston in poetry is James Math
?ws Legare, born in Charleston in
L863. He, like Timrod, found law too
:onfining for poetic temperament,
rle sings not of the city and its life,
)ut like his great contemporaries of
hat day i:i England, he sings of the
)usy field of hay, wild blossoms and
;imple country life, and he pours out
)f his lyric soul dirges in memory of
leparted kin. In a word, Legare is a
)oet of romantic melancholy and
virgin nature.
To this running list may be added
he historians, essayists, romancers, J
>rators and descriptive writers that
lave so well portrayed the heroic and
?ventful past in all stages of devel
>pment of the South Carolina city
hat sleeps by the sea, a past full of
oy, sorrows, glories, humiliations
iqual to that of Athens with the
jems of a literature that may some
lay equal Athens.
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