Literary Hearthstones of Dixie

Literary Hearthstones of Dixie

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Title: Literary Hearthstones of Dixie
Author: La Salle Corbell Pickett
Release Date: August 30, 2005 [EBook #16622]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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HEARTHSTONES OF DIXIE ***

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[Illustration: THE HOME OF AUGUSTA EVANS WILSON,
ASHLAND PLACE Now owned by Mrs. George Fearn, Jr.]

LITERARY HEARTHSTONES OF DIXIE

By LA SALLE CORBELL PICKETT
AUTHOR OF "PICKETT AND HIS MEN," "JINNY," ETC.

With Portraits and Illustrations
PHILADELPHIA & LONDON
J.B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY
1912
COPYRIGHT, 1911, BY J.B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY
COPYRIGHT, 1912, BY J.B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY
PUBLISHED SEPTEMBER, 1912
PRINTED BY J.B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY AT THE
WASHINGTON SQUARE PRESS PHILADELPHIA, U.S.A.

Transcriber's Note:
There is an inconsistency in the fifth paragraph of the Forword where
the author refers to Dr. Bagley's "The Old Fashioned Gentleman," and
the reference to Dr. Bagby's "The Old Virginia Gentleman" in the
chapter "Bacon and Greens".

FOREWORD.
The fires still glow upon the hearthstones to which our southern writers
in the olden days gave us friendly welcome. They are as bright to-day

as when, "four feet on the fender," we talked with some gifted friend
whose pen, dipped in the heart's blood of life, gave word to thoughts
which had flamed within us and sought vainly to escape the walls of
our being that they might go out to the world and fulfil their mission.
They who built the shrines before which we offer our devotion have
passed from the world of men, but the fires they kindled yet burn with
fadeless light.
To us who have dwelt in the same environment and found beauty in the
same scenes that inspired them to eloquent expression of the thoughts,
the loves, the hopes, and the aspirations which were our own as well as
theirs, these writers of our South are living still and will live through
the long procession of the years. In the garden of our lives they planted
the flowers of poesy, of fable, and of romance. With the changes of the
years those flowers may have passed into the realm of the
old-fashioned, like the blossoms in Grandmother's garden, but are there
any sweeter or more royally blooming than these?
The lustre of our gifted ones is not dimmed by the passage of time, but
in the rush of new books upon the world the readers of to-day lose sight
of the volumes which wove threads of gold into the joys and sorrows of
the generation now travelling the downward slope of life. Their starry
radiance is sometimes lost to view in the electric flash of the present
day. If these pages can in any slight way aid in keeping their memory
bright they will have reached their highest aim.
The poets of Dixie in war days tended the flames that glowed upon the
altar of patriotism. Their lives were given to their country as truly as if
their blood had crimsoned the sod of hard-fought fields. They gave of
their best to our cause. Their bugle notes echo through the years, and
the mournful tones of the dirges they sang over the grave of our dreams
yet thrill our hearts. Before our eyes "The Conquered Banner"
sorrowfully droops on its staff and "The Sword of Lee" flashes in the
lines of our Poet-Priest.
For the quotations with which are illustrated the varying phases of his
poetic thought I am indebted to the kindness of the publishers of Father
Ryan's poems, Messrs. P.J. Kenedy & Sons. For certain selections from

the poems of Hayne I am indebted to the Lothrop, Lee & Shephard
Company, and for selections from Dr. Bagley's "The Old Fashioned
Gentleman," Messrs. Charles Schribner's Sons.
My thanks are due the Houghton, Mifflin Company for permission to
include in my paper on Margaret Junkin Preston two poems and other
quotations from the "Life and Letters of Margaret J. Preston," by Mrs.
Allan, the step-daughter of Mrs. Preston.
The selections in the article on Georgia's doubly gifted son, Sidney
Lanier, poet and musician, are given through the kind permission of
Professor Edwin Mims and of Doubleday, Page & Company,
publishers of Mrs. Clay's "A Belle of the Fifties."

CONTENTS
PAGE
"THE POET OF THE NIGHT" 11 Edgar Allan Poe
"THE SUNRISE POET" 41 Sidney Lanier
"THE POET OF THE PINES" 69 Paul Hamilton Hayne
"THE FLAME-BORN POET"