The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1899-06-06
WILMINGTON. n. g.
TUESDAY, JUNE 6, 1899.
THE COMING iOF A SOUIhhEtN
POET INTO RECOGNINlON.

TT 20 a matter Of surprise that poets,
,,1 come truly great poets, have not
heen duly appreciated at first. Inc
history of literature is full OF examples.
We cite Shakespeare, Milton, Byron
Wordsworth, Tennyson, Keats and
Robert Browning as examples. snakes
peare had admirers and friends, but his
general reputation was not comparable
to what it is now. Cowley was thought
to he a greater poet than Mllton'
greatest of all English speaking poets
after Shakespeare. Byron was slasned
by the Quarterly" Wordsworth was
laughed at by the Edinburgh" Zen
nvson was damned by Lockhart and
Others. Keats was long believed, but
most enormously, to have died from
the cruel barbed arrow shot by the
London Quarterly" and
though a greater shrdluetaofncm1Wyp
s. though a quarter Of a century 1alieo
to catch the public ear and had TO De
content with a few admirers IN MS
own LAND and in this. All OF THESE
poets have come to their own" and
are now recognized properly as among
the great poets. All have passed into
the unseen world and have high places
in the worlds Pantheon among the 1m-
-mortals. This has occurred to us in
connection with a poet of genuine IN
.~spiration, of singular purity of MIND,
with a style limpid, direct. simplicity
itself, and with a grace and beauty OF
thought that are unmistakaDle with
any one who has poetic taste in
sight. In fact, in the moderate vol
tune of his pr-oductiveness there are
ZINES of exquisite inspiration and ex-
preston. and stanzas of superb charm
and power. He is a most quotable poet.
and has upon him, we trust, the light
of immortality among the mighty
dead who sang to the world and then
passed into the silences beyond. This
poet-true and noble and lovable-born
in this neglected southland. is not one
of the poets who have been popular in
the south. 1t is only a few weeks g
since one of the ablest of critics connect
ed with great northern newspapers ex-
pressed establishment that there was
any call for this poets verse. And yet,
he is as much poet-born as Longfellow
/. or Lowell, as Whittier or Holmes. He
was a genuine singer, and nor an
s. echo. He sang noble. sweet, inspiring
strains and in the very prime OF young
manhood he left harp and song and
folding his hands gave himself and all
he hoped for into the hands of his
blessed Redeemer. We. of course. re-
fer to Harry Timrod-a poet to us OF
more enrapturing delight than any
,other born in the south. and with the
exception of Poe accidentally born in
Boston, as Thackeray was in lndla) he
was perhaps the most richly endowed.
He has left imperishable lines We would
fain believe. We are gratified to see
in the June number Of the New York
"Bookman" an appreciation of the
gifted South Carolinian. Reading again
some of his charming productions we
have wondered why it is that every
man and woman in our southland who
had pretense to culture and any
taste for delightful verse. were not ia
-zmiliar with poems so exquisite in their
beauty and the perfection of their
form. The Messenger has latterly sew
eral times drawn attention to the new
volume of Timrod's poems that has
been published recently. Longfellow
prophesied twenty years ago that. 1.-THE
day will surely come when his poems
will have a place in every home Of
culture in our country" Speed the
day! A few enlightened and sympa-
Ghetto northern writer's nav praised
him, as others have praised Lanier.
The poems have for the most part been
laid in the dust OF f~orgetfulness while
all that was mortal of this son Of gen
illus was lying in the unmarked grave
at Columbia. but if forgotten or neg
lected by man, was not forgotten by
Him who said to a suffering and de-
spairing world-"I am the Resurrection
and the Life" The writer in The
~Bookman," Mr.. Henry Austin. dis
guishes the poems as highly beautiful
as of exquisite style, as full of ease
and restraint, as simple in the words
employed, of a noble simplicity OF
"a sincere a~rt-sense,' calm and steady
with tender touches, ideal caresses, OF
that curiosa felicitas of phrase which
MAKE to such large extent, for vital
~perdurable power" He even goes so fal
as to ask of a part of n war poem il
may not C utterance be pro
Inc unsurpassed for intensity IL
modern martial literature?" There art
other opinions that are quotable ant
true. In the last paragraph Mr.. Aus.
tin felicitously gives out this high nots
of coming recognition and enduring
fame:
He died beautifully like a Greel
philosopher and poet, with a Christian:
faith. receiving the sacrament. That
he lived beautifully his poems ayouch
The range of their feeling is wide
though the range of his art is not. Blu.
within its compass that art is close
to perfection, and entities him to rank
among the true singers of his country
and the world. His fame, after this