Semi-weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1853-18??, 1862-03-19
The STANDARD.
For the Standard.
: Sc ss Forths Standard
ANEW NoRTH-CARoLINA BOOK.
wHESPER, AND OTHER POEMs."
ny TuEo, n. HILL

the clarion of war is blatant With ITS furious noise
II viii not perhaps be unpleasant to portion your
readers, to.turn for moment from the sad record
{ of suffering, and carnage and death, to the quiet
aks of literature, and RECALLED by the fragrance
{ of few sweet poetic flowers gathered from the Of
fefings Of a North Carolina mind. The secular
press have cordially greeted such political tractaes
as the times have called FORTH and surely the tera
" pubic vii not be less courteous and prompt IN
: welcoming INTO their society who come modest
. u before them, but yet clad in "singing robes,
which he wears appropriately and gracefully. Spe-
chilly should generous reception be extended and
d hearty God prosper you, be given, inasmuch as
this claimant for literary Donors IS the tIst to
appear as poet since the declaration of our ndepen-
dence from the iron rule OF anarchy. IL Is true,
that during the most ubiquitous war waged against
US by the brutal Celestias OF the North, many fu-
Ritive compositions of more or less merit nave oeen
published, (the most noteworthy Of which was IN
celebration Of the great battle of Manassas and from
the brilliant pen of Mrs Clarke, wife oil Co w. q.
Clarke, OF the 14th Reg, n G. State troops
poem which par parentheSis we take leave to char
scterize as beautiful and of real Hebraic strength
but no volume written by Southern poet and pub
lished BY Southern printers has appeared, save the
one which it is cur pleasing task now to notice.
Despite the jealousy of Yankee critics and the
-unbIushing assumptions Of the literary hacks OF
Boston, the South has always possessed among her
gifted sons many who masters OF verSihcatlon,
s and whose inspirations unmlstakably poetic
that the merest sciolist in letters could not fail to
distinguish between them and the common herd OF
fhymsters and village poetasters. Without IN this
necessarily brief paper aludng to the scores OF gen.
uine poets whose names are honored among we'll
read people, though perchance they are not as ia
miar as household words, we yet can make good
our assertion that the South is not at all destitute oil
men Of poetic genius if we only mention the names
Of Edgar Poe, Pendleten Cooke, Jno K. Thompson,
Paul H. IIayne W. J. Grayson and James Barrow
he two orTnp
in their maahoods early prime, the remaining four,
we rejoice to know, are still in the flesh, young
comparatively in years. Zone excepted and we trust
are accumulating rich material during these troub
lous days to be worked up hereafter into noble
lyrics and sweet pastOrals, and grand odes, and
rich difficult and Ito the common mind unappre-
ciated sonnets, and it may be into poems of epic
scope, grandeur and power. We hail. therefore,
any new singer from whatever Southern home he
comes whether "Linnet-hke" he I" flies in the hum
Bile vale" or with the "strong Eagle sails along the
skies" whether his carrollingS be among the
"blue-eyed pimpernels" and sweet vioets which
nNun' like hide themselves in unfrequeEted
places where sun-beams cannot peep" or like Pc
trarch pours out his heart in sweetest sonnetS or
with Milton scars into higher and purer atmoS-
phere of thought Specially does our heart warm
when he comes with an old familiar face" from
our own noble State and modeStly lays his offering
at the shrine of the Muse whom he worships. IT,
however, upon all Vi Ills
We should find that he is intruder into the YER
nal meads and sequeStered groves in which the tru
" gifted are to stroll that instead OF drink
ing at the real Castalian fonnt he has only been
imbibing few fat and nSipid draughts from a
way-side spring whose waters never sparkle with
the life of poesy and song, We shall quietly tell him
So and give him the same advice that was gwen to
distinguished friend of ours by aterary Maceanas
ITO take to the measles, the whooping- cough, CT
the iaundice but not to writing verse But these
remarks are by no means applicable to the author
under consideration, for we have examined and read
carefully the different poems contained IN his neat
little volume and we have met with such n}anifes-
taons as 70 assure us that that divine Gatus which
all poets have, has not been denied Mr.. Hill. In
other words, this volume shows the author to be
man Of genius and culture 1t may be true that
there is considerable inequality in the poems; it
may be true that Poe might apply his critical
scalpel to of them, mercilessy, If be chose
as he did when he subjected one William W. Lord,
to his cruel anatomizIngs 1t may be true, That the
pieces short and of seeming evanescent and
sometimes fragmentary character; it may be true,
the judcious reader will detect certain manneris,
perhaps he may even think certain spirit of mita-
ton it may be true that there is evidence of
sustained power and that the reader is struck with
the occasional repetition of phrase, idea
line, and the recurrence of certain words of
rather melliiuous and pretty sound, and yet after
all this if he have one particle of real poetic taste
or the least poetic sympathy, and appreciate
harmony of yersifcation, beauty of expression and
originality of thought, he will have to accord to
author place among those writers who WOO sue
cessfully the muses..
It would not be difficult to tell who are the poets
that stand chiefest in Mr.. Hills affections To
tell this one would not require that poetic notices
be prefixed to his stanZas. Any who has read
Pee, and Keats, and Tennyson, can trace the niu-
ence OF their rich, abundant, and peculiar genius
upon the intellectual habitudes of our author But
we do not thiLk him a copyst in any offensive
sense, for in the little duodecimo before us we are
unable to recognize any old friends with whom we
have had pleasant ASSOCIATION in former years. if
except those only which we have seen published in
the Leisure Hour and other papers, by Mr. Hill
himself The defects and excellencies of the volume
are the authors-the latter greatly preponderating
Indeed, there is not much carelcssness traceablc
in this volume as is to be found in the works of most
ENTHUSIASTICALLY youthful ones.
The genius Of Mr.. Hill is sometimes gay and roll
licking, sometimes sad--nay downright gloomy and
desperate. Poes Raven" and that splendid trag-
ic story by the same author" The Fall of the
House of Ushur must have made deep impress
sion upon his mind and aided no little in giving d.
rection and tone to his inspiration. Even in some
OF his most joyous pieces when he sings merriy for
few slaves he gives expression to sentiments that
suggest disaster smack of suicide and smell Of the
graveyard. But then there other poems utterly
free from all faint of hypochondria, in which noble
and elevating thoughts expressed in language at
once beautiful and felicitous Indeed, we should
think. that when he penned some of the poems, his
mind was umined by the rich eulgence that streams
from the Cross, and his heart cheered by the sweet
consultations of the religion of Jesus The mind
that conceived 1.-The Star above the Manger," or
"Hope Of Heaven" was surely not prey to morbid
fancies and depressing fears, but was inbued with
deep religious sentiment perhaps controlled by gen.
uine religious principle "rThe Star above the
Marger,n is really beautiful and deserves to take
rank with the best productions of the Southern
mind. Its length prevents US from copying it fol-
the delectation'o of the reader.
WeEfegret that We cannot undertake a regula,
analysis of the volume, much less an elaborate. ex
haasve eritaqas. Our time, If We possessed the re
anisite ability, would not allow such an excursion
The volume richly merits an extended notice, anC
some Of the literary hebdomadals mOnthes should
-