The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1902-03-30
North Carolina Poets.
elizabeth City Economist.l

elizabeth City Economist.)
North Carolina is a prosaic rather
than a poetic State. The honey bees of
Hymettus we're buzzing about the life
of our people at their birth, generally,
but there have been poets among us, but
generally they were born to"blush unseen
and shed their fragrance on the desert
air." Every man is born a poet and
there is perhaps no man or woman
among us, who is not an idiot. but has,
at some time ''warbled wood notes
wild"
But our people are generally so mat
| ter of fact" and prosaic that no one has
stopped in his material avocations to
pay just tribute to toilers up Parnassus
by the poetic pathway to larger offering
of their labors in the garden of roses.
We do not know our poets abroad, but
we have known some and heard of many
in this historic cradle of North Carolina.
/ The Iredell family is perhaps the most
distinguished in the Albemarle county.
James Iredell, Sr., was a United States
Supreme Court Justice. James Iredell,
Jr.. was Governor of North Carolina, the
successor of Nat Macon in the United
States and tradition says, was selected
by the Southern Senators to reply to
Daniel Webster in the celebrated debate
on Foote'S Resolutions, but being called
home by private business Hayne, of
South Carolina, was selected as Iredells
| substitute. Iredell, Jr., wrote excellent
poetry and his monody on the death of
the first Mrs. Badger was a touching
tribute to the memory of his deceased
friend, that we fear has been entirely
forgotten. His father, the Supreme Court
Justice, in his rest from judicial labors
relaxed himself in wooing the Muses..
In later generation ]. r. Creecy, Of
Edenton, wrote poetry that Longfellow
and Holmes might have envied. Creecy's
poetry was of a humorous character and
was a rendering in verse of some IA
miliar jest Poor Paddy and 1.-THE Sor-
rows of Nobody were side-splitting.
He left a volume called Scenes in the
South"-a portraiture of the flush times
of Mississippi, which is a very creditable
production.
Among the living natives of the Abe
marie section, now a resident of New
York, formerly a resident of this town,
we place foremost, Cecil P. Pool. His
lyrics are mostly lovelorn of the Tom
Moore type. Listen to one as a sample
of several others:
A MYSTERY.
IF you were me, and trouble haunted
you" he whispered low,
Weighed down your soul in doubt, what
would you do?"
I'D tell some one my trouble, were l
Won with accent slow
She said. And yet again: IF you were
me-"
He said, "and loved a sweet lass ten
derby, what would you dor
Flushed grew her cheek and dropped
her head;
II think I'd go and tell her So" she
said, "if I were you"
"Ah, sweet! tbs you l mean, my little
Iove-I love you, Flo
Yet lower dropped her sun kissed
head above
The roses on her breast; frightened
dove ne'er fiuttered so.
Il love you, dear" he said again and
Her answer will e'er be a mystery,
Twas said so low.
CECIL PERCY POOL.
MdTCD, lJV-.
Turning away from the Albemar1S the
loved land of our birth, We have met a
scrap OF true poetry from the charming
pen of Mrs. Margaret Busbee Shipp. 1t
is only fragment, but it is a specimen
brick and shows that her wing has the
true inspiration and that it only needs
encouragement to take a longer and
moro Sustained flight Tho honev heec nj
Hymettus were surely buzzing around
her infantile lips. The little inspiration
is headed "A Morning Thought" and the
subjoined verse is taken at random:
o, Healer of dumb lips, give power to
mine
To pour the oil of comfort and love S
wine
On hearts that faint upon the journey
long!
To help them to be patient, glad and
strong.
To look from thorns beneath to skies
above,
Teach my poor stammering lips say
words of love!"
The flowery fields of poetry lies fallow
in North Carolina, and the reapers in
the rich harvest stand idle all the day. .
| Why is this? No work is more beautiful
or more appreciated when well done
We have the reapers, the harvest and
| the fallow land. Friends and country
| men put in your sickles. and when the
day of settlement comes you will have
your reward.