Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1862-04-05
Mortester Bully Spy.
From the New York Evening Post.
A REBEL POET.
A SECESSION ILIAD.

S@NA-SoAON
The southern literature for which our breth-
rem in Dixie's land have long asked in vain
seems at length TO have a beginning Rich
mond has produced poet-or at least a poet.
aster. There as, indeed, a familiar twang
about some of his verses, as though the south.
ern fegasus had contracted the dishonest hab.
It's OF Floyd, Thompson, & Co., and get his
rhymes as they got their muskets and mil.
lions. But we must not look gift horse in
the mouth, especially if he comes from Dixie
Let us accept what the gods-or their chival-
rlc children-send. We have received. by
the kindness OF friend lately from Richmond
volume chanting the praises OF rebellion Its
title is, "The rebelliad, by Hampden Sidney
Boggs. Printed at Richmond, Va, C. s. A.,
1867 Below we give the reader a taste OF
This the first fruits OF the confederate muse
II VIII be seen that the author treats OF many
things, though chiefly he treats of the virtues
OF those patriots and sages who, having fired
the southern heart, are now busily setting fire
to the southern hearth.
But to our extracts, without further preface.
The poet begins, as is fit, with vision OF the
future glory of the coniederacy, and the con.
sequent ruin of the north
''Rapt into future times the Muse SURVEYS
The ripening wonders of succeeding days
The hated Union broke, its splendoTs gone,
The cursed Yankees their hard fate bemoan;
The wretched mudsis drive from side to side
See them, at once of cotton and tobacco shorn,
ADJect and bringing. southern gentrys scoIn;
See commerce quit Manhatta's desoate isle,
10 seek in South Carolina kinder soil;
See direct trade I'LL up our banks with gold.
While northern mudsilis SILVER in the cold
As busy fancy paints the guady dream,
Ideal docks with shadowy navies TEEN;
Wbate'er on sea, on lake, on river floats,
Ships, tug-bOats, RATS, tubs, and hatbottomed
boats,
Smiths, sailors, carpenters, in busy crowds,
Mast, CABLE yard, sail, bowsprt, anchor, shrouds,
Knives gigs, harpoons, swords, handspikes cutlass
blades,
Guns, pistols, swives, cannons, carronades,
All rise to view! All blend in gorgeous show!
Cotton, tobacco, tar, pitch, turpentine, and tow"
Aud so on, for a good many other lines, in
which the confederacy benefits by the ruin of
the north. Before he gets through, however,
our poet seems to have heard of another Union
victory-perhaps the surrender of tort Donel-
son or the capture of Nashville--and his music
turns TO the consideration of possible defeat,
the consequences of which he depicts in such
tremendous colors as we should anticipate OF
"hery southerner":-
"Then will the southern chivary expire,
And quench with federal blood their towns on fire,
Burn their last railroad bridge, whose tolls made
Yankees rich;
Shoot their last niger, and prepare the ditch
The last of ALL where they may dye their swords,
In Yankee hearts of Lincons cOwardly hordes."
Why the chivalry should prefer to die in a
ditch-except, perhaps, that most of them have
lived in the gutter-is more than we can guess.
But our poet has evidently caught the general
and very loudly expressed determination of
the rebels, to Idle in the last ditch" and ex.
presses it, clumsily enough, hut vigorously.
A mere northerner would choose a cleaner
place than ditch to die ill., but there is no
accounting tor tastes, as the old woman said
when she kissed her COW.
From some lines we are about to quote we
are led to suspect that our author is one of the
editors of the Richmond Examiner, sheet
which has helped on the confederate cause
mainly by criticisms of the conduct of the
rebel leaders. The writer seems to have a
particular luminosity towards Mr.. Roger A.
Pryor, the gentleman who was scared by Mr..
Fotter's ready acceptance of his challenge;
and who after infinite boasts and tremen-
dous display of martial valor before the war,
has, since hostilities broke out, attended sedu
lousy to the peaceful and not laborious duties
of confederate congressman. OF him it is
written -