Poets of the South | Page 6

have found enchanted ground,?But not a knight asleep."
But a martial lyric of greater force is Little Giffen, written in honor of a blue-eyed lad of East Tennessee. He was terribly wounded in some engagement, and after being taken to the hospital at Columbus, Georgia, was finally nursed back to life in the home of Dr. Ticknor. Beneath the thin, insignificant exterior of the lad, the poet discerned the incarnate courage of the hero:--
"Out of the focal and foremost fire,?Out of the hospital walls as dire;?Smitten of grape-shot and gangrene,?(Eighteenth battle and he sixteen!)?Specter! such as you seldom see,?Little Giffen of Tennessee!

"Word of gloom from the war, one day;?Johnson pressed at the front, they say.?Little Giffen was up and away;?A tear--his first--as he bade good-by,?Dimmed the glint of his steel-blue eye.?'I'll write, if spared!' There was news of the fight;?But none of Giffen.--He did not write."
But Ticknor did not confine himself to war themes. He was a lover of Nature; and its forms, and colors, and sounds--as seen in _April Morning_, Twilight_, _The Hills_, _Among the Birds--appealed to his sensitive nature. Shut out from literary centers and literary companionship, he sang, like Burns, from the strong impulse awakened by the presence of the heroic and the beautiful.
JOHN R. THOMPSON (1823-1873) has deserved well of the South both as editor and author. He was born in Richmond, and educated at the University of Virginia, where he received the degree of Bachelor of Arts in 1845. Two years later he became editor of the _Southern Literary Messenger_; and during the twelve years of his editorial management, he not only maintained a high degree of literary excellence, but took pains to lend encouragement to Southern letters. It is a misfortune to our literature that his writings, particularly his poetry, have never been collected.
The incidents of the Civil War called forth many a stirring lyric, the best of which is his well-known Music in Camp:--
"Two armies covered hill and plain,
Where Rappahannock's waters?Ran deeply crimsoned with the stain?Of battle's recent slaughters."
The band had played "Dixie" and "Yankee Doodle," which in turn had been greeted with shouts by "Rebels" and "Yanks."
"And yet once more the bugles sang
Above the stormy riot;?No shout upon the evening rang--?There reigned a holy quiet.
"The sad, slow stream its noiseless flood
Poured o'er the glistening pebbles;?All silent now the Yankees stood,?And silent stood the Rebels.
"No unresponsive soul had heard
That plaintive note's appealing,?So deeply 'Home, Sweet Home' had stirred?The hidden founts of feeling.
"Or Blue or Gray, the soldier sees,
As by the wand of fairy,?The cottage 'neath the live-oak trees,?The cabin by the prairie."
On account of failing health, Thompson made a visit to Europe, where he spent several years, contributing from time to time to _Blackwood's Magazine_ and other English periodicals. On his return to America, he was engaged on the editorial staff of the New York Evening Post, with which he was connected till his death, in 1873. He is buried in Hollywood cemetery at Richmond.
"The city's hum drifts o'er his grave,?And green above the hollies wave?Their jagged leaves, as when a boy,?On blissful summer afternoons,?He came to sing the birds his runes,?And tell the river of his joy."
The verse of Mrs. MARGARET J. PRESTON (1820-1897) rises above the commonplace both in sentiment and craftsmanship. She belongs, as some critic has said, to the school of Mrs. Browning; and in range of subject and purity of sentiment she is scarcely inferior to her great English contemporary. She was the daughter of the Rev. George Junkin, D.D., the founder of Lafayette College, Pennsylvania, and for many years president of Washington College at Lexington, Virginia. In 1857 she married Colonel J. T. L. Preston of the Virginia Military Institute.
For many years she was a contributor to the _Southern Literary Messenger_, in which her earlier poems first made their appearance. Though a native of Philadelphia, she was loyal to the South during the Civil War, and found inspiration in its deeds of heroism. Beechenbrook is a rhyme of the war; and though well-nigh forgotten now, it was read, on its publication in 1865, from the Potomac to the Gulf. Among her other writings are Old Songs and New_ and _Cartoons. Her poetry is pervaded by a deeply religious spirit, and she repeatedly urges the lesson of supreme resignation and trust, as in the following lines:--
"What will it matter by-and-by?Whether my path below was bright,?Whether it wound through dark or light,?Under a gray or golden sky,?When I look back on it, by-and-by?
"What will it matter by-and-by?Whether, unhelped, I toiled alone,?Dashing my foot against a stone,?Missing the charge of the angel nigh,?Bidding me think of the by-and-by?

"What will it matter? Naught, if I?Only am sure the way I've trod,?Gloomy or gladdened, leads to God,?Questioning not of the how, the why,?If I but reach Him by-and-by.
"What will I care for the