Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1923-06-28
Justly Famous Georgian


are judiciously interspersed throughout.
He knows the negro 1T first hand"
AS short-story writer Edwards is unex-
celled. He is national celebrity in this par
ticular line, Notwithstanding the sneering
opinion of Mencken.
'"The VuIture and His Shadow"
One day while Harry Edwards was walking
down historic College Hill, in Macon, Ga, he
saw large circling shadow on the ground,
and looking up he beheld a buzzard flying
rather near the earth. This suggested to him
writing the poem, 1.-The VuIture and His
Shadow" which Leonidas Warren Payne, Jr,
the distinguished professor Of English in the
University of Texas, has incorporated in his
admirable volume, Southern Literary Read
ings," and says: ut has been called the most
nearly perfect short poem written in the
south in recent years. 1t is marvel of
imaginative power and lyric grace" =
1 herewith reproduce in full this MASTER
piece of weird melody, and suggest to the
reader to peruse the same closely, and then
notice the analysis though it is incompletely
and imperfectly given, following the lyric.
ALI the day long we roam, we roam, ;
My shadow feet and l; - Is
One searches all the land and sea, &f.f3
And one the track1ess sky; @%ss
But when the faint of death aseends
My airY41ight to greet, kr%g9
AS friends around the festal board, htE4fl
We meet We meet We meet!
All! none can read the sign we read,
No eye can fathom the gales, "a
No tongue can wh'eper our secret deed,
For dead men tell no tales y
The spot on the plains is miles away;
But our wings are broad and fleet X
The wave-tossed mote in the eye of day
Is far-but we meet; we meet! a
The voice of the battle is haste, oh, hassel
And down the wind we speed;
The voice of the wreck means up from the
And we search the rank sea-weed.
The maiden listens the iivelong Jay a~J
For the fall of her lovers feet; 1sl
She wonders to see us speeding by I'll
She would die, if she saw us meet ~;
L'ENvoT. ~
Sweeping in circles, my shadow and I,
Leaving no mark in the land or sky, q
When the double circles are all complete,
At the bedside of death we meet! we meetE
The Tragedy of the .Ieeting
1t is the vulture that is supposed to be
speaking in the poem, Death--the tragedy
is the theme. The conclusion points to q
waiting sweetheart and dead sailor. You will
observe that the vulture says to his shadow
in the last stanza:
'The voice of the wreck means up from the
And we search the rank gsa-weed. 1
The maiden listens the livelong day
For the fall of her lovers feet
She wonders to see speeding by
She would die, if she saw us meet"
The readers mind can easily frame the
tragedy of the vulture and his shadow meet
ing at the side of the sailors corpse, wave
tossed" on the shore.
The key word of the poem is 1--WE meet!"
Notice that in the last line of the first stanza
the two words occur three times-"We meet!
We meet! We meet" In the last line of the
second stanza they are used twice-"We
meet! We meet!" In the third line of the
final stanza only once. These words are sup
posed to describe the descent of the vulture
and his shadow towards the sailors dead
body. They suggest the lessening circles "
which the vulture descends to earth And
thus nearer and nearer approaches the meet
ing 1aess
Eve meet! We meet; We meet!"
1--WE meet! We meet"
1--WE meet"
In the seventh line of the second stanza
occur the words "in the eye of day. Mr.. Ed
wards says this is, of course, the sun, but the
picture he had in mind was the half-risen
orb, and silhouetted against it, on an ocean
plain, floating speck" which he changed to
mote" for obvious reasons.
The expression is from Bourdillon's famous
eight-line lyric:
f.,
1.-THE might has thousand eyes,
And the Day but one;
Yet the light Of the bright world dies
With the dying SUM-"