Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1896-02-09
GREAT "T0IN REBELS"
james barron Hope and His Pro-
pItccy and Prayer.
written for the Dispatch.

written for the Dispatch)
On reading "A Wreath of Virginia Bay
Leaves" the handsome volume recently
issued by West. Johnston & Co., COM
prlsing some selections from the verse
Of virginlas dead poet laureate, Captain
James Barron Hope, and edited with
loving care and much ability by his
daughter Mrs. Janey Hope Mari, OF Lex
ington, every true sOutherner Will es-
pecially rejoice that, among other fine
specimens preserved, that splendid poem,
Memorial Sacrum-the Lee Memorial
Ode-has been rescued from the OBJ
security OF newspaper files ana given
fixed and worthy abiding place In Ameri-
can literature.
In it's rare comprehensiveness, power,
and felictOus expression; in Its historic
truth, in its dignity, is It's lofty patriot
ism. and In it's sublime Christian feith-
as a superb epitome, in fact. of the stern
and touching story Of the COnfederacy-
this poem alone should be sufficient 10
immortalze it's noble and gifted author,
and win for this "Nirginian OF Virgin
ians the undying gratitude OF the people
Of the South.
While many of the sentiments expressed
by him have at divers times and places,
and i'm various forms, been ably and
happily presented by other southern
speakers and writers-gOod men and
true-it seems to have been left to his
marvellous mental grasp and beautiful
poetic genius 10 crystalline so signally
our views in this regard, and compress
within the compass of this brief ode such
an unrlyalled wealth Of fact and southern
spirit.
The poem has the martial ring OF
"Horatius," yet closes as softly as a
80 fIHas
whose life and whose people il COM
memOrates must, indeed, have smiled
down from on high with approval when
he saw how well the grand lessons he
had ever striven to inculcate were being
still further impressed on the world and
transmitted to the future an such splen-
did and enduring form by one OF his
neutenants.
when the subject OF the poem and
the occasion for which il was written
are considered in all their bearings, it
would well seem that the hour and
the man had come"-and that the man
was Hope; one, too, OF those men OF
whom he so we'll speaks as lore
ordained and long-maturing."
In regarding this stirring epic ana his
other war pieces one realizes the force
OF the old saying, let me but make
the ballads of country. and l care not
does Mrs Mari put it. In her introduce
tory sketch of the poet. when she says:
He did not deal in distractions or gene
rallied arguments, or vague mys-
ticsms He fired the Imagination purely,
he awoke lofty thoughts. and presented
through his noble odes that which is the
soul OF every true poem-a living sue
cession of concrete images and pictures"
Two points, however. in the Memorial
no CT no
stand out. 1t seems TO me. with con-
spcuous distinctness over all else that
he wrote in this strain. and cannot but
greatly impress a thoughtful "outsider'';
and they may be termed the prophecy
and the prayer-the calm, deliberate fore
cast Of the poet, speaking for his sec
tomas to the future status OF Lee
as patriot and peer OF Washington.
and his thrilling invocation to the south
ern people to bow, like Robert Lee, with
Christian resignation, to the will OF the
God Of BATTLES.
The stanza runs as follows:
V
When the efIigy OF Washington
In it's bronze was reared on high.
Twas mine, with others, now long gone,
Beneath a stormy sky.
To utter TO the multitude
His name that cannot die.
And here to-day my countrymen.
l tell you Lee shall ride
With that great rebel down the years
Twin rebels" side by side
And confronting such a vision
All our grief gives place TO pride.
These two shall ride immortal
And shall ride abreast Of Time,
Shall light up stately history,
And blaze In Epic Rhyme
Both patriots, both Virginians true
Both rebels" both sublime.
Our past is full OF glory,
Ii Is a shut-in sea,
The pillars overlooking IL
Are Washington and Lee
And future spreads before us.
Not unworthy of the free.
And here and now. my countrymen,
Upon this sacred sod,
Let us feel: II was "Our Father
Who above us held the rod.
And from hills to sea
Like Robert Lee
Bow reverentiy to God.
II Washington and Lee are the pillars
overlooking our sea-" surely the sublime
sentiments embodied In this prophecy and
in this prayer win be as lighthouses on