Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1886-03-13
DRIFT.

times IN the literary world, Is tho TACT that
YOU can hardly pick up any OF our hrstclass
magazines or literary Journals without meet.
ing with something or other IRON the pen oi
"A Southern author. Indeed among tho chief
attractions, II not the chiei, in our leading
magazines for several years past, have been
serials, articles aud poetry by writer's. like
Cable, Craddock, Joel Chandler Harris,
Mark Twain. J. Brander Matthews, Maurice
Thompson, Moncure u. Conway, John Esten
Cooke, Sidney I.snier, paui Hayne, William
IIayne, Father Ryan, John Tabh, George
Alfred Townsend, Mrs. Piatt, Margaret j.
Preston, and a number OF Others all born ut
least south of Mason n Dixon's liue. To use
the language OF Mr.. Stejman, IN hts notable
work ON Poets of America, recently issued
In beautiful form from the Riverside Press,
All this Is a sure ana happy sign that 90 the
great heart Of the generous and lonely South,
too long restrained, of the South once 80 pro.
digal of romance, eloquence, gallant aspira.
ton, once more has found expression. II
enables us TO know IL, having begun at last
TO comprehend its tue self"
Is no other sphere OF activity has there
been so marked aud complete n renaissance
IN the South since the war ~ in that Of litera-
ture. What was ii wrought the change
Was 1t that the blight of slavery has been
removed, which before had tainted the
Southern heart and ancy 80 deeply that the
lips of her muse were dumb and her fingers
paralyzed to touch the golden harp? Ii Is
true in the meteoric Poe she burst forth into
wondrous song But after all it was not
really the muse of the South that sang In
him, any more than the muse of the North.
1t was a strange and alien voice, startling as
sound wierdly waited into our literature
wild, defiant wali,--'irom the nights
Plutonian shore" Coming suddenly and a.
quickly silenced again, IT only served 10
emphasize the comparative weakness ana
worthlessness of all the other songs of that
land, by nature meant to be the sunniest,
happlost and most tuneful on our hemis-
phere. In all the years before the war, while
In the North our Bryants, Longiellows,
Whittiers, and l.owells,our lrvings, Coopers,
Hawthornes, aud Holmes gained the recog
milton and respect of the world for American
literature, the South seemed content with its
Albert Pikes Pendieton Cooks and William
Gilmore Simms', and nth such stories ~ its
Kennedys could write, its "Marion Har.
lands" and Augusta ]. Evans. Saving Poo,
II produced in all the aute-bellum era not
one writer worthy OF being compared even
with the least OF dozen or a score, OF authors
that have risen since, aud are enriChing our
literature with some of it, purest and richest
gems OF beauty and grace.
So rapid and vigorous has been the devel.
ten years or more, that II 1t keeps on at the
same rate, as II promises to do, the North
will have 10 look sharply to her laurels lest
they he won for the brow of the youthful,
fresh and bOuyant "New South" that Is so
rapidly taking the place OF the old.
| HAVE Just been re-readiug some OF
Sidney Lanier's witching, magical, melo-
dious verses,-they show new beauties forth
with every fresh perusal,-and | am more
hrmiy convinced than ever that inc "iWl'
lght OF the foets, in when MI Stedhan
says "eN present are, IL surely, perhaps
more s"liuy thah We thlbk' uta"lhs 10
close. for l.anier was hot an evening put
riiis ti,3irnins SuaI ms Puio hsn. si anu E,VyMins
bnt harhingere -, tha cnminy dawn II ~
true no was extinguisbeI eyen i'm his rising
beauty But the light that illumined him, the
pure spirit % poetry he reflected, cannot have
died with him. IT shone behind him, be
meath the horizon rs Yet, and sui SHINES.
And that horizon, 1t Is significant To note,
was not the Eastern but the Southern. His
fellow citizen, John Tahb OF Baltimore, spoke
not for himself alone when he called after
him these words, full OF deeper meaning per
Chance than he knew who uttered them
The same blue bending dome cncanopies
Thine ashes aud the spark that kindlcs mine
IN S ,S wims sIs SS pSs" we
'' Siss '''' "''" '"' ""''' '''''
And 'twixt our souls tho star wrought mys
S,oips, iTps 'nS S 1[aIt'S nt 81
To point the path benightod to the skies"
With the same blue skies above, the same
free SOIL beneath, and the same vital spirit
Monhu, siniia eAPeriehces alu si.nllar ii aims
Sirth ~ Sidnav faniar whn sb,n ssv thhaip
virtue is weak ened or their rover to produce
another like him. another mayhap even
greater than he ?
THE South has been particularly unior,
tnpa,a i'm tba Inss bv death ot two n, ber
- " - -. -, -, = a
yo"hs P'e'A "no "oi" iuiies' VI iioih''e''n'
gave every assurance oi rising into the very
front rank OF American poetry. The hrst
was Henry Timrod, who, like Sidney Ianier
died when lint thirty eight wears al AGE in
isU7 uo .oanoa 10 h.. ;rst ,Inn,ir,, hi1,.aI,
, - n'sn, 80 49, =, ,'i '',,,s,,
'oi n'e"o' nish' 'iiai' "hs VI MS county
men had yet aken, though the smoke OF war
hao scarcely had tiine 10 ron away ahd leaNe
tne SKY ciear, Wheh ne ieiL inc lhtilnatiois
Oh new inspiration anu power, anu iresh
n'elhou, Which MS "oottoli Don ailoIo,s seem
10 nave peeh taken UP, anu Improved on, DY
Lanler. but heither was lhe iatter perinilel
10 perfect ana compiete ms song though
now ar thihe coulu .i DO ilole Pei,ect ,nah M
esuI,ec,ion, ,hS%, no 3ac,luer'e, SONY oi
tne me ohattahoochie, ,hgvenSe oi hai,iisn,
rms MrhinS biiu, tampa hopihs, ne
StLIiuP-,uP, Euhrnse, anu s'oie u
ouhe' gems, II hafu 10 iuiaSihe
I,l a..g ..n. I..N.s