War Poetry of the South | Page 4

Broadside
Dirge for Ashby, Mrs. M. J. Preston
Sacrifice,
Charleston Mercury
Sonnet, Ibid.
Grave of A. Sydney Johnston, J.
B. Synott
"Not doubtful of your Fatherland," Charleston Mercury

Only a Soldier's grave, S. A. Jonas
The Guerrilla Martyrs, Charleston
Mercury
"Libera Nos, O Domine!" James Barron Hope
The Knell
shall sound once more, Charleston Mercury
Gendron Palmer, of the
Holcombe Legion, Ina M. Porter
Mumford, the Martyr of New
Orleans, Ibid.
The Foe at the Gates--Charleston, J. Dickson Bruns

Savannah Fallen, Alethea S. Burroughs
Bull Run--A Parody,
Anonymous
"Stack Arms," Jos. Blythe Allston
Doffing the Gray,
Lieutenant Falligant
In the Land where we were dreaming, D. B.
Lucas
Ballad--"Yes, build your Walls," Charleston Mercury
The
Lines around Petersburg,
Samuel Davis
All is gone,
Fadette--Memphis Appeal
Bowing her Head, Savannah Broadside

The Confederate Flag, Anna Peyre Dinnies
Ashes of Glory, A. J.
Requier
War Poetry of the South
Ethnogenesis.
By Henry Timrod, of S.C.
Written during the meeting of the First Southern Congress, at
Montgomery, February, 1861.
I.
Hath not the morning dawned with added light?
And shall not

evening--call another star
Out of the infinite regions of the night,

To mark this day in Heaven? At last, we are
A nation among nations;
and the world
Shall soon behold in many a distant port
Another flag unfurled!
Now, come what may, whose favor need we
court?
And, under God, whose thunder need we fear?
Thank Him who placed us here
Beneath so kind a sky--the very sun

Takes part with us; and on our errands run
All breezes of the ocean;
dew and rain
Do noiseless battle for us; and the Year,
And all the
gentle daughters in her train,
March in our ranks, and in our service
wield
Long spears of golden grain!
A yellow blossom as her fairy shield,

June fling's her azure banner to the wind,
While in the order of their birth
Her sisters pass; and many an ample
field
Grows white beneath their steps, till now, behold
Its endless sheets unfold
THE SNOW OF SOUTHERN SUMMERS!
Let the earth
Rejoice! beneath those fleeces soft and warm
Our happy land shall sleep
In a repose as deep
As if we lay
intrenched behind
Whole leagues of Russian ice and Arctic storm!
II.
And what if, mad with wrongs themselves have wrought,
In their own treachery caught,
By their own fears made bold,
And
leagued with him of old,
Who long since, in the limits of the North,

Set up his evil throne, and warred with God--
What if, both mad and
blinded in their rage,
Our foes should fling us down their mortal gage,

And with a hostile step profane our sod!
We shall not shrink, my
brothers, but go forth
To meet them, marshalled by the Lord of Hosts,


And overshadowed by the mighty ghosts
Of Moultrie and of
Eutaw--who shall foil
Auxiliars such as these? Nor these alone,
But every stock and stone
Shall help us; but the very soil,
And all
the generous wealth it gives to toil,
And all for which we love our
noble land,
Shall fight beside, and through us, sea and strand,
The heart of woman, and her hand,
Tree, fruit, and flower, and every
influence,
Gentle, or grave, or grand;
The winds in our defence
Shall seem to
blow; to us the hills shall lend
Their firmness and their calm;
And in our stiffened sinews we shall
blend
The strength of pine and palm!
III.
Nor would we shun the battle-ground,
Though weak as we are strong;
Call up the clashing elements around,
And test the right and wrong!
On one side, creeds that dare to teach

What Christ and Paul refrained to preach;
Codes built upon a broken
pledge,
And charity that whets a poniard's edge;
Fair schemes that
leave the neighboring poor
To starve and shiver at the schemer's door,

While in the world's most liberal ranks enrolled,
He turns some
vast philanthropy to gold;
Religion taking every mortal form
But
that a pure and Christian faith makes warm,
Where not to vile fanatic
passion urged,
Or not in vague philosophies submerged,
Repulsive
with all Pharisaic leaven,
And making laws to stay the laws of
Heaven!
And on the other, scorn of sordid gain,
Unblemished honor,
truth without a stain,
Faith, justice, reverence, charitable wealth,

And, for the poor and humble, laws which give,
Not the mean right to

buy the right to live,
But life, and home, and health!
To doubt the end were want of trust in
God,
Who, if he has decreed
That we must pass a redder sea
Than that
which rang to Miriam's holy glee,
Will surely raise at need
A Moses with his rod!
IV.
But let our fears-if fears we have--be still,
And turn us to the future!
Could we climb
Some mighty Alp, and view the coming time,
The
rapturous sight would fill
Our eyes with happy tears!
Not only for the glories which the years

Shall bring us; not for lands from sea to sea,
And wealth, and power,
and peace, though these shall be;
But for the distant peoples we shall
bless,
And the hushed murmurs of a world's distress:
For, to give
labor to the poor,
The whole sad planet o'er,
And save from want and crime the
humblest door,
Is one among--the many ends for which
God makes us great and rich!
The hour perchance is not