Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1852-11-17

of the present year will out we'll rs their corn
fields We sincerely trust That they will also raise
large number Of hogs make their own bacon, enjoy
their good cheer feel independent AMI live happy.
WANT OF A NATIONAL POET IN AMERICA
IT has been often asked, why country so rapidly
progressive America, both in science and art, and
particularly fruitful in the production of Orators and
Statesmen, has never given birth to a real national
Poet The invariable answer is our country:is not
ye, old enough. In other words it is argued that
kind Of mysterious twilight must hover around the
early history ola nation that images and events height
ened by the magnfying medium Of agc must be
called up from The dark and dusty labyrnLs Of time,
ringed with alternate gimcrings of real and fabulous
story, upon which The fancy, imagination and inven-
,ion of the author work, before true poet,
able to touch the electric Chain with which We are
jarky bound, and awake the syma,hics and national
pride Of his country, can be found.
Such state Of things is thought necessary to the
formation and development Of L Genius, such as in
ancient times IIum.r was TO Greece, and Virgil 10
Romc-such as in modern days the author Of the Me
be lungca lied was to Germany and the authors Of The
great Spanish and English ' national BALLADS were to
their respective countries
Now we do no, deny but that there is great deal
of pasibility and also Of truth in the answer but
ar. inclined to believe much more Of the former than
the latter.
l ct us take as an example our own country, con.
tincn the very vasncss of which implies sublimiiy,
whose broad cxpansc, from where calm as slulnbcr-
ing babe tremendous sleeps, td where the Andes
throwing eternity in icy halls of cold submity"
lower the silver sea, breathes the very soul Of poe
try. Whose every cave seemed shaped ont for the
greeting of some enamored Goddess and whose messy
cells arc apparently haunted by holy love-the very
earliest oracle. Where flowers freshest in hue and
many in their class, mock the delighted eye and with
their vari.colored dyes, dance in the soft breeze in
fairy mess, and where the sotest sigh that vernalze
pliers breathe in evenings ear, steal gently DER the
dew bespangled groves-4
4 popnlous solitude Of bees and birds,
And fairy forms and many col0rcd things,
Fearless and full of life: the gusi ofsprings
And fall Of lofty fountains and the bend
Of stirring branches Which brings
The swlcst thought Uf beauty, here extend
Mngliug."
Where was there ever 4 greater scope for pocilca
license Where wilder or more extended revel for
the fancy or imagination Would not lIcsiod or
Homer soon have given to such land ileir fabled
Thcogony peoplcd it with their Gods and Gocsscs
their Heroes, their Cyclops, and their Tltans. In
der the magic touch of an Ovid Virgil would not
every mountain have its divinity, every grove its
mysterious beings every vale through which trcklcd
the mcandering rvuet be alive with Fauns, and Maj
ads, and Nympls, and Salyrs
Bu, even apart from this play Of the Imagination.
doesno The discovery of country contain in itself
the very germ Of poetry If the Lusind he as fine
poem represented, ranking even above the Icrusa-
salem Delivered and if it be Gas is undoubtedly the
,ruth) that Canocns composed this divine work willie
voyage Of comparative insigniicnncc, what night
he not have produced if sailing with Columbus for
hitherto unknown world, and at length discovering
such q country M America!
Besides there are innumcrable incidents connected
with and almost nscparabc from our early history,
every Of which, il seems to Us, might furnish the
most ample material for any kind Of poetry. Juan
Ponce Deieonand his followers search of the tabled
fountain Of 3mini'' or eternal YOUTH is a beautiful
and fruitful theme for the poet, one equal to tho en-.
chanted castles the Fairy palaces and the Genii of the
Arabian Nights Such fountain might be presumed
guarded by Gorgons, Dragons and =" chmcra's dire
equally poetca and terrible as those that protected
the golden fleece OF the Garden Of Icspcrides, and TO
have discovered the Of preserving eternal youth
scertainly deserving of argonau,ic expedition, and
os all the perseverance, courage and skill Of Jason
ami Medca. Where there he found more
mantle picture than that Of the young Spaniard and
his retinue habited in the of the old world,
traversing the wilds and melancholy gluoms Of Flori
da for mystic ount imagined image Of some bright
eternity, ametaphor Of spring and youth and morning,
"a vision like incarnatc April, warning with smiles,
frost the anatomy into his summer grave, more dc.i
rablc than that
g Isle twixt heaven earth, air and sea,
Graded and hung in clear tranquility"
Brighter than
'That wandering Ellen IuciEr,
Washed by the soft blue ocean of young air.
Or that other of DcSoto upon the banks Of the Mis-.
sissippi, gazing with wonder and awe upon the majes
tic It'd. it ceasclcssy rolled on chanting its ctcr.
nal thunder psalm" Touched by the pen of Genius
such river would be far more renowned than the
S,yx, or Cocytus, Pblegethon, or the The golden
Pactous, or Zanthus Iss,is each scdgy lake, and
many fountain, rivule and pond clear elemen-
tai diamond would have its sylvan forms The tre-
mendous peaks of the Co-erillas the soaring An
des would rebeow from their hoarsc caverns to the
heavy strokes of Poyplcmus and his Cyclops, every
mountain and hill become Parnassus and lIclicon
and every grove heavy with the scent Of orange Aow
ers, would have its Ulysses Rnaldo and out rival
the grotto af Calypso and her Nymps, the bcwitcl-
ing scenery Of Armida's enchanted garden.
Can anything he more touching or natural in real
life than the arllcssness and simplicity with which the
Indian girl cast herself upon the bosom Of her sup
posed foe imploring the mercy of her savage father
Can history furnish beautiful t;lbeau, or the
imagination body forth finer scene
Tie celebrated episode of Nisus and Euryaus by
Virgil tand evidently taken from IIomers is surely not
poecal or natural az the rescue by Jasper and his
comrades Of their their unfortunate kinswonan The
daring. heterogeneous strategy, The occasion, the spot,
and the circumstance nll worthy Of the most i'm
passiened strain. The patriot and hero of the !fIncil
cannot equal our Washington, has the gifted
roct given ns heroic example Than the death of
Wolf. and Montcam. While the one died content