The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1903-11-15

Rev. Hight c. Moore, of Chapel HILL be-
fore the State Literary and Historical
Association, upon "a Glance at the Poetic
Literature of North Carolina:
| There is perhaps no section of America
that can furnish a richer background
for exalted poetry than North Carolina.
The opening leaves of her history tell
of the famous Raleigh, the mysterious
"Croatan,'' little Virginia Dare and Flora
Mcdonald. The Mecklenburg declara
| ton was the first fearless cry for Amel1-
can liberty, and Alamance was the first
fought field of freedom The herosm
OF Carohnians was exhibited in the wars
with England and Mexico, and when re-
luctantly' North Carolina espoused the
cause of the Confederacy. She furn-
ished more soldiers than she had voters
and lost more men than any other South
ern State" There is also poetic inspi.'
alton in the charm of her scenery:
From Mitchell the pride of the noun
tains,
To Hatteras the dread of the sea-
But despite our wealth Of poetic theme,
/
our State is a land without q poetry,
solitude without "a warbler of wood
notes wild" Sift the iingles by your
army of rhymesters, our critics say and
you Will have little genuine poetry left.
Even so; let a just and fair criticism be
melted out upon our writer's of verse
it is precisely what we have needed toI
long. But the decapitation of all our
I a y
critic who is sadly lacking in either in
sight or information He probably is
unaware of the existence of more than
forty volumes TO the credit of our poets,
at least a dozen of which embody genu-
inc poetry. He may not know that a
few of our bards have won high praise
from the forefost literary critics in
America, or possibly he is unable to ap-
preciate such stirring lines as Holden's
"Hatteras," Fuller's THE Last Look"
Boner's "At Fordham,' Sledd's The
Children" or Stockard's Homer" But
the fact remains, North Carolina has a
poetry Of her own; some Of her bards
have sung gracefully and nobly; and she
may well be proud OF them.
VERSES UNINsPIRED.
And yet we readily grant that the
mass of Carolina verse IS uninspired;
many of our Tar Heel melodies are far
from melodious. And when a North
State poetaster strikes discordant note
he makes a noise one is not likely to for
get. More than once the Charlotte OBJ
server has sent a. litter across the State
by review of original poems by ma
tive versifiers from the author of The
| Balsam Groves of the Grandfather to
the songster who rests in the wire grass
OF the lowlands. Sometime ago Charity
and Children OF Townsville was the vic
tim OF letter containing two specimens
of verse--one "a sketch of Drunkenness. .
and the other on THE Lovely Little Pet
Dog'-with the following unprecedented
dir .tta. Editor please publish these
two peases 10 poetry give the name of
compositloner IN your paper let us have
a copy at clans. A correspondent of
the Goldsboro Headlight wrote that paper
that he had decided to launch out in
the literary business and inquired III
there's a market for practical toasts at
receptions and social gatherings" He
further wrote: II don't want anybody
! to buy a cat in the bag, so | herewith
send samples of my work-throwed OF
on the spur of the moment" About the
best of the samples were as follows:
Here's to the health OF Silas Jones,
He is a man nobody owns,
Mighty few people can break his bones" "
He concluded his letter saying: 1:
you want any obituaries on people that's
dead and gone, can fill them to at mod
crate rates. All l want out of life Is
a living" Probably surprising either of
these lovers of the Muse was yet another
whose effusion finally came to the light
OF print in the columns OF the New Bern
Journal under the following card: Dear
Sir.-I sent you poem last week and
asked you to publish it in your paper
You declined and returned it to me with
the crushing reply that / was no poet,
and that you could turn out better poetry
out of a sausage mill. Now I won't be
crushed and l propose to show UP your
attempt to throttle bubbling genius. Pub
bsh this card and the following poem in
your columns and charge to me at your
advertising rates" Upon such a back
ground as this We could hardly crlticise
the sophomore who taking the Latin SEN
I'tence "Poeta nascitur non fit is said to
have translated it 1.-The poet is nasty
and not ftten.
But aside from such froth there is
more serious and ambitious work which
is lacking in poetic fire. Perhaps as
many as twelve or fifteen volumes Of
native verse have been the work of au-
thors and authoresses not out of their
teens; and most of their pages we read
IN vain search for an inspiring thought
or line. A poetess mailing from the VI
clnity of Wilmington who is said to
have published two volumes of her work
at her own expense was the butt of much
merrlment two or three years ago IN the
New York and Norfolk papers as we'll
as in our own State press. And there
have been men of real ability IN other
departments of thought and life who have
been quickest of all to lament their early
poetic escapedes. The author OF Francs
Herbert aud Other Poems," more dis