Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1921-03-23

his people entering into what they De-
lieved to be holy war OF defense,
and the sorrow and suffering of the
defeat. Beneath the symbolism of the
cotton boil, that negro has brought
TO him as he muses. under the great
southern pine, he tells US of the true
greatness of the South, then strug-
Cling in battle:
sYe stars-thou sun-ye clouds
And you, we winds
Bear witness with me in my song
of praise,
And tell the world that, since the
world began,
No fairer land has fired the poets
lays,
Or given "a home to man."
Yet this poet of beauty and
Keats-like feminine sweetness, has
received tardy fame at the hands of
the public; our Southern people have
been too prone to follow northern
judgments even when such judg-
ment is as in the case of Tlmrod,
prejudiced, until of late, by the shad-
ow of the Confederacy; not until
1898 was a convenient edition of the
poets works available to the public.
He was born in Charleston in 1929,
the son of the book binder, himself
one of Charleston's minor poets.
Timrod the younger studied law un-
der James L. Petigue, but like most
men of poetic genius, found law in
compatible with the poetic disposi-
ton. He spent ten years of happiness
as private tutor basking in the ease
and intelligence of the slave civiliza-
ton. He, along with Hayne and the
classic scholar, Gildersleeve, was one
of the coterie of literary lights that
gathered around William Gilmore
Simms, the Samuel Johnson of South
Carc:lna. He died in 1868 broken ma
terially, physically and spiritually by
the great war, not however, before he
had used the war as the avenue of
his poetic fancy and passion.
Second in Importance among the
poets of Charleston and of the Con-
federacy was Paul Y. Hayne-Tim-
rods friend and oiographer. He was
born in Charleston in 1880 of aris-
tocratic lineage. Not until the War
of the Confederacy did he write
poem that rose above the dead level
of mediocrity. Having lost all his
property in the bombardment of
Charleston he became soldier of the
South and active voicer of its ideals.
In stirring war songs he breathes the
ideals of the South, partisan and mil
liant. After the defeat he established
himself with thirty dollars and ill
health on barren hill top near Au-
gusta, Georgia, where for many years
under the inspiration of a kindly
wife and the quiet after the storm,
he westled with poverty and warbled
his native wood note wild to the de-
light of the American public. Pro-
fessor Wauchope of the University
ranks him as the greatest American
writer of sonnets. For narrative,
"MacDonald's Raid" and vengeance
of the Goddess Diana" take high rank
in the literature of country noted
for narrative. "In Harbor, "By the
Grave of Timrod," ''The Mocking
Bird" and Unveiled" reveal the
South in quiet melancholy.
Many other names should be add
ed to Charleston's list of war poets.
"The Civil War;" says Professor
Trent of Columbia University, "add-
ed to the stock of American poetry
mass of verse, sufficient both in guam
tity and quality to warrant fair
amount of attention from the critic.
1t is marked with deep sincerity, and
on the Southern side especially, by
an intensity of emotion that hampers
cool criticism" In this poetry Charles
ton bears off the palm. In addition to
Hayne and Timrod the trumpet call
of the opening conflict is sounded by
Samuel Henry Dickson's "South
Carolina" John Henry Bruins in 1.-The
Foe is at the Gates of Charleston"
gave the city inspiration to resist and
consolation in noble defeat; Joseph
Aston dirges over the Lost Cause
Sumter" and "Stack Arms
breathe the air of Charleston under
the excitement of battle. This poets
"Charge of Hagood's Brigade" tells
the story of the bloody battle around
the city. Yates Snowden, historian of
L