Poets of the South | Page 5

died before his poetic gifts
had reached their full maturity. He was the son of the eminent lawyer
and diplomatist, William Pinkney, and was born in London, while his
father was American minister at the court of St. James. At the age of
nine he was brought home to America, and educated at Baltimore. He
spent eight years in the United States navy, during which period he
visited the classic shores of the Mediterranean. He was impressed
particularly with the beauty of Italy, and in one of his poems he says:--
"It looks a dimple on the face of earth,
The seal of beauty, and the
shrine of mirth;
Nature is delicate and graceful there,
The place's
genius feminine and fair:
The winds are awed, nor dare to breathe
aloud;
The air seems never to have borne a cloud,
Save where
volcanoes send to heaven their curled
And solemn smokes, like altars
of the world."
In 1824 he resigned his place in the navy to take up the practice of law

in Baltimore. His health was not good; and he seems to have occupied a
part of his abundant leisure (for he was not successful in his profession)
in writing poetry. A thin volume of poems was published in 1825, in
which he displays, especially in his shorter pieces, an excellent lyrical
gift. The following stanzas are from A Health:--
"I fill this cup to one made up
Of loveliness alone,
A woman, of her
gentle sex
The seeming paragon;
To whom the better elements

And kindly stars have given
A form so fair, that, like the air,
'Tis
less of earth than heaven.
"Her every tone is music's own,
Like those of morning birds,
And
something more than melody
Dwells ever in her words;
The
coinage of her heart are they,
And from her lips each flows
As one
may see the burdened bee
Forth issue from the rose."
PHILIP PENDLETON COOKE (1816-1850), like most Southern
writers before the Civil War, mingled literature with the practice of law.
He was born at Martinsburg, Virginia, and educated at Princeton. He
early manifested a literary bent, and wrote for the Knickerbocker
Magazine, the oldest of our literary monthlies, before he was out of his
teens. He was noted for his love of outdoor life, and became a thorough
sportsman. In 1847 he published a volume entitled Froissart Ballads
and Other Poems. The origin of the ballad portion of the volume, as
explained in the preface, is found in the lines of an old Roman poet:--
"A certain freak has got into my head,
Which I can't conquer for the
life of me,
Of taking up some history, little read,
Or known, and
writing it in poetry."
The best known of his lyrics is Florence Vane which has the sincerity
and pathos of a real experience:--
"I loved thee long and dearly,
Florence Vane;
My life's bright dream, and early,

Hath come again;
I renew, in my fond vision,
My heart's dear pain,
My hope, and thy derision,
Florence Vane.
"The ruin lone and hoary,
The ruin old,
Where thou didst hark my story,
At even told,--
That spot--the hues Elysian
Of sky and plain--
I treasure in my vision,
Florence Vane.
"Thou wast lovelier than the roses
In their prime;
Thy voice excelled the closes
Of sweetest rhyme;
Thy heart was as a river
Without a main.
Would I had loved thee never,
Florence Vane!"
THEODORE O'HARA (1820-1867) is chiefly remembered for a single
poem that has touched the national heart. He was born in Danville,
Kentucky. After taking a course in law, he accepted a clerkship in the
Treasury Department at Washington. On the outbreak of the Mexican
War he enlisted as a private soldier, and by his gallant service rose to
the rank of captain and major. After the close of the war he returned to
Washington and engaged for a time in the practice of his profession.
Later he became editor of the Mobile Register_, and _Frankfort
Yeoman in Kentucky. In the Civil War he served as colonel in the
Confederate army.
The poem on which his fame largely rests is _The Bivouac of the

Dead_. It was written to commemorate the Kentuckians who fell in the
battle of Buena Vista. Its well-known lines have furnished an apt
inscription for several military cemeteries:--
"The muffled drum's sad roll has beat
The soldier's last tattoo;
No
more on Life's parade shall meet
That brave and fallen few.
"On Fame's eternal camping-ground
Their silent tents are spread,

And Glory guards, with solemn round,
The bivouac of the dead."
O'Hara died in Alabama in 1867. The legislature of Kentucky paid him
a fitting tribute in having his body removed to Frankfort and placed by
the side of the heroes whom he so worthily commemorated in his
famous poem.
FRANCIS ORRERY TICKNOR (1822-1874) was a physician living
near Columbus, Georgia. He led a busy, useful, humble life, and his
merits as a poet have not been fully recognized. In the opinion of Paul
Hamilton