Southern standard. (McMinnville, Tenn.) 1879-current, 1886-05-08


Maryland!
Arise in majesty again,
Maryland, my Maryland.
Father Ryan's Conquered Ban
ner' was the expiring spirit of a dy-
ing nationality, forevermore to live
only the life Of history, poesy, ro-
nance and sentiment:
Fun that banner True tits CORY,
Yet tits wreathed around with glory,
And twill live in song and story,
Though its folds are in the dust;
For its fame on brightest pages,
Penned by poets and by sages,
Shall go sounding down the ages
Furl its folds though now we must.
Furl that banner, softly, slowly;
Treat it gently-it is holy
Fer it droops above the dead.
Touch it not-unfold it never,
Let it droop there, furled forever,
For its peoples hopes are dead
Neither lacked imperfections, to be
pricked out by the keenly critical
pen. In aptness, in timeliness, in
furnishing an exact expression of the
spirit Of the people and the times, at
the time when it was written, each is
poetry in the first degree.
One breathes the buoyant, fierce,
wild hopes Of youth, struggling, but
full of confidence in the struggle. The
other eXhales the dying spirit Of lusty
manhood, cut off in the fullness of
life, lamenting, not life lost, but op-
pOrtunity denied, hopes withered and
expectations turned to ashes, eXulting
in the nobility and honor of the half
life lived and the memory left stain
less to go sounding down the ages"
Each has written verse more finish
ed, but none to compare, respectively
with the maryland" and the Coon
quered Banner"
The essentials Of great poem are
the poet, the theme and the occasion.
Randall would have sung unheard
strains had no mighty struggle given
him the opportunity to present the
sentiment ola nascent nation. Father
Ryan would have sweetly sung hum
bic strains had no profound grief of
millions given a great subject in pro-
found sentiment.
Randall had more of the fiery zeal
which expressed itself mingled with
rage and wrought itself into fierce
lyrical call to arms, and when the
cause had failed spread itself out and
lost itself in practical life; Father
Ryan was more the true poet who
could only live and breathe as a poet
His was the gentler spirit. Hispoesy
was more spiritual, more the entire
being Of the man. Only the poet in
the man grew, absorbing all powers
and eating out the material life. Ran.
dall's was the more vigorous, active
nature; Ryan's the most spiritual-po
etical. Poetry was a quality of the
one; it was the being and the life o.
the other.
The lives of the two men furnish al
analogy, which is reflected in theil
own verses and in types Of theil
countrymen, Randall sang, joyously
but tiercely, almost savagely thu
growing hopes of nation. Like tina
people, he turned to hard, enduring
:. patient toll, winning practical success
Hope for this world did not die il
poet or people. 1t transplanted itself
: budded and bore fruit.
Father Ryan, the gentle, thought
: full, philosophical as well as poetica
poet-priest, sang a sweet, sad, bu
manly dirge, the dying song of hope
f and himself languished and wreStleC
with the great thoughts and senti
ments within him, until death CAV,
, him ''rest." He had it in him t
give expression to the HONORABLE,
f memories of the past and the senti
/ ment of reverence that the robus
| race of enduring men, who hav,
turned defeat into victory and regen
, Grafton, must ever feel. He was no
} able to endure. His soul bursted it
= frail tenement and chafed out Of it
t confines. Peace to his noble, tru,
and gentle spirit. None Of her son
1 more truly Felt with the southland il
, all things thm Father Ryan, her poe