Virginian Writers Fugitive Verse
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VIRGIN IAN WRITERS OF FUGITIVE VERSE VIRGINIAN WRITERS FUGITIVE VERSE we with ARMISTEAD C. GORDON, JR., M. A., PH. D, Assistant Proiesso-r of English Literature. University of Virginia I“ .‘ '. , - IV ' . \ ,- w \ . e. < ~\ ,' ’/I , . xx \ ‘1 ‘ 5:" /« .t {my | ; NC“ ‘.- ‘ '\ ’ 1 I Nor, \‘ /" . -. \\ ' ~. I -. Gil-T 'J 1’: II. D' VI. Doctor: .. _ ‘i 8 » $9793 Copyrighted 1923 by JAMES '1‘. WHITE & C0. :To MY FATHER ARMISTEAD CHURCHILL GORDON, A VIRGINIAN WRITER OF FUGITIVE VERSE. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS. The thanks of the author are due to the following publishers, editors, and individuals for their kind permission to reprint the following selections for which they hold copyright: To Dodd, Mead and Company for “Hold Me Not False” by Katherine Pearson Woods. To The Neale Publishing Company for “1861-1865” by W. Cabell Bruce. To The Times-Dispatch Publishing Company for “The Land of Heart‘s Desire” by Thomas Lomax Hunter. To The Curtis Publishing Company for “The Lane” by Thomas Lomax Hunter (published in The Saturday Eve- ning Post, and copyrighted, 1923, by the Curtis Publishing 00.). To the Johnson Publishing Company for “Desolate” by Fanny Murdaugh Downing (cited from F. V. N. Painter’s Poets of Virginia). To Harper & Brothers for “A Mood” and “A Reed Call” by Charles Washington Coleman. To The Independent for “Life’s Silent Third”: by Charles Washington Coleman. To the Boston Evening Transcript for “Sister Mary Veronica” by Nancy Byrd Turner. To The Century for “Leaves from the Anthology” by Lewis Parke Chamberlayne and “Over the Sea Lies Spain” by Charles Washington Coleman. To Henry Holt and Company for “Mary‘s Dream” by John Lowe and “To Pocahontas” by John Rolfe. To The Courier—Journal, of Louisville, for “Uncle Ike an’ Mose” by M. G. McClelland. To the J. B. Lippincott Companyfor “A Death Bed Advice" by Thomas Jefferson (in The True Thomas Jefer— son, by William Eleroy Curtis); the “Acrostic” and “Lines” by George Washington (in The True George Washington, by Paul Leicester Ford); and the “Epigram on Governor Spotswood" by William Byrd, the “Verses in Memory of Richard Meade” by the Rev. Mr. Wiley, and “The Church’s V Petition” by Mrs. William Cabell Rives (all in Meade’s Old Churches, Ministers and Families of Virginia). To the Times Publishing Company, Ltd., of London, for “A Virginian in Surrey” by Benjamin Sledd. To The Youth’s Companion for “The Return” and “The Dream Peddler” by Nancy Byrd Turner. To The Lyric, of Norfolk, Va, for “The Unwilling Gypsy” by Josephine Johnson; “Sea Fever” by John R. Moreland; and “Parting” by Virginia Lyne Tunstall. To Burton E. Stevenson for “Lafayette” by Dolly Madison. ‘ To Miss Mary Washington Gold and Miss Burnie Crown for “The Confederate Soldiers” by John 0. Crown. To Mrs. Parke C. Bagby for “Fill Joanses” and “The Old Virginia Gentleman” by Dr. George William Bagby. To Dr. Lyon G. Tyler for “Speed On, My Vessel” by President John Tyler, and “On My 5lst Birthday" and the “Tribute to Samuel Hardy” by Judge John Tyler (in Letters and Times of the Tylers). To Miss Jennie Thornley Clarke for “To Mary” by John Archer Clarke. (30 Mrs. A. L. Whelan for “My Love” by M. G. McClell- an To Mrs. Bessie W. Chamberlayne for “Leaves from the Anthology” by Lewis Parke Chamberlayne. To Mr. Horace Hayden for the “Translation” by Gen- eral Lewis Littlepage (in Hayden's Virginia Genealogies). Grateful acknowledgment is also made of assist- ance rendered in the preparation of this book, through the submission of manuscript poems or through the permission to republish their verses or through the furnishing of' information relevant to poems and authors, by Hon. George Wayne Anderson, of Richmond, Va; Mr. C. Conway Baker, of Montross, Va.; Dr. James C. Bardin, of the University of Virginia; The Late Mrs. Fanny C. B. Barnum, of Winchester, Va; Dr. Paul B. Barringer, of Charlottesville, Va; vi Mrs. G. Bonham Bird, of Teignmouth, England; Mrs. Kate L. Bosher, of Richmond, Va; Mr. Frank P. Brent, of Kilmarnock, Va; Hon. W. Cabell Bruce, of Baltimore, Md.; Dr. Philip Alexander Bruce, of University, Va.; Hon. William E. Cameron, of Louisa, Va.; Miss Jennie T. Clarke, of Greensboro, N. G; Mr. Charles W. Coleman, of the Library of Congress; Dr. E. Preston Dargan, of the University of Chicago; Judge R. T. W. Duke, J r., of Charlottesville, Va; Dr. Basil L. Gildersleeve, of Baltimore, Md.; Miss Ellen A. G. Glasgow, of Richmond, Va; Mrs. Margaret C. Gwathmey, of Norfolk, Va; Dr. 'John Lesslie Hall, of William and Mary College; Mrs. Allan R. Hanckel, of Norfolk, Va; Hon. Fairfax Harrison, of Belvoir, Va.; Judge Robert M. Hughes, of Norfolk, Va; Mr. Thomas Lomax Hunter, of King George, Va: Dr. Cary Jacob, of Richmond, Va.; Miss Josephine Johnson, of Norfolk, Va; Mr. H. T. Louthan, of Staunton, Va; Mr. Robert A. McCabe, of Wheeling, W. Va; Mrs. Virginia T. McCormick, of Norfolk, Va; Dr. H. G. McIlwaine, Librarian of the Virginia State . Library; Dr. John C. Metcalf, Professor of English in the Univer- sity of Virginia; Hon. G. R. B. Michie, of Charlottesville, Va.; Miss Virginia E. Moran, of University, Va.; Mr. John R. Moreland, former editor of The Lyric, of Norfolk, Va; Mr. James Poyntz Nelson, of Richmond, Va; Dr. C. M. Newman, Professor of English in the Vir- ginia Polytechnic Institute; Hon. Rosewell Page, of Beaver Dam, Va; - The late Hon. Thomas Nelson Page, of Washington,D.C.; Mr. John S. Patton, Librarian of the University of Virginia; . Dr. George Ross, of Richmond, Va; Miss Ellen Seawell of Norfolk, Va.; Dr. Benjamin Sledd, Professor of English in Wake Forest College; Dr. C. Alphonso Smith, Profassor of English in the United States Naval Academy; Mr. Dummn Smith, of New York, N. Y.; Dr. W. G. Stanard, Secretary of the Virginia Historical Society; . Mr. Earl G. Swem, Librarian of William and Mary College; Dr. W. P. Trent, Professor of English in Columbia University; ' The Princess Troubetzkoy, of Castle Hill, Cobham, Va; The Rt. Rev. Beverley D. Tucker, of Norfolk, Va; Mrs. Robert B. Tunstall, of Norfolk, Va; Miss Nancy Byrd Turner, of Boston, Mass; Dr. Lyon G. Tyler, of Holdcroft, Va; Mr. Edward V. Valentine, of Richmond, Va; Mrs. A. L. Whelan, of Norwood, Nelson County, Va; The late Mrs. Katherine P. Woods, of Baltimore, Md.; Dr. James Southall Wilson, Professor of English in the University of Virginia; Dr. Richard H. Wilson, of the University of Virginia Especial thanks are due to Dr. Philip Alexander Bruce, who read the manuscript and made a number of valuable suggestions; to Mr. Thomas Nelson Page, who also read the manuscript and was kind enough to write an introduction to the volume; and to my wife, who has helped in its preparation in more ways than need be told. viii .4. CONTENTS. Introduction, by Thomas Nelson Page ..... .xiu Chapter I. 071. F ugiti-ae Verse .......................... .3 Mono-poems; lesser writers—Characteristics of South— ern poetry—Literary activity in the South; in Virginia —The ‘Humbler Poets’—Small amount of Virginian poetry—Its material and subject-matter. Fugitive-verse collections—Value of the restricted field—Provincialism and its relation to intensive art— Fu-gitiae verse defined—Virginian fugitive-verse writers: appearance of their work in anthologies, volumes, pamphlets—Classification of their work—Its historical worth—Problems of authorship—Virginian poet defined. Chapter II. The Early Colonial Period ................... l8 Character of Virginian literature—The Jamestown Settlement—Conditions deterring literary growth: the plantation system, schools, printing, the nature of the settlers, other causes—Paucity of verse in Colonial Virginia—Its tendencies contrasted with those of con- temporary New England verse. ' Captain John Smith—Richard Rich—John Rolfe, John Davis, and the verses to Pocahontas—George Sandys—“Good Newes from Virginia”; the charter of the London Company revoked—John Grave: “A Song of Sion”. Chapter III. The Later Colonial Period .................... 31 Poetry of Bacon’s Rebellion; Cotton—‘Parlous times’ —Governor Berkeley and progress—First printing press —Schools and education, in Virginia and in Massachu- setts—William and Mary College—Absence of caste system in Virginia—Political training—First theatre; The Virginia Gazette—Prose writers of the period— “The Poet’s Comer”—Commissary Blair and Governor ix Nicholson—Spotswood, Arthur Blackamore, and the “Expeditio Ultramontana”—William Byrd of Westover: his epigram on Spotswood—Acrostic on Evelyn Byrd— George Washington’s verses; his acrostic on Frances Alexander—“True Happiness”; Augustine Washington -—‘Earliest surviving evidence of printing done in Vir- ginia’—Poem.e on Several Occasions: ‘A Gentleman of Virginia’—William Parks—J, Dumbleton: “The Paper Mill”—-‘N. S.’ and his Masonic ode—Richard Bland— Robert Bolling. Chapter IV. The Revolutionary Period ..................... 48 Character of Revolutionary poetry—Classes of verse —The Virginia Gazette—Absence of Toryism in Virginia “Hearts of Oak”—Botetourt—Dunmore, the Battle of Point Pleasant, and Tazewell County ballads—The tea troubles—Theodorick Bland—J. W. Hewlings—General Weedon—Matrimonial verses, and others—James Mc- Clurg—St. George Tucker—Samuel Henley—Religious toleration; the Baptists—“A Poem, to the People of Virginia”. Chapter V. The Period of Confederation .................. 65 ‘The Golden Age of American Literature’; Virginian poetry during this age—Letters in the South since 1860 —The South’s literary future—Peace—The slavery problem—Education, colleges, magazines and printing—- Aversion to literature as a profession—John R. Thomp- son’s resumé of Virginia literature. General Lewis LittlepagHohn Lowv—William Wirt —Samuel Hardy—'Judge John Tyler—Verses on Richard Meade—John Daly Burk—John McCreery—John Davis —‘Oscar’—‘Parson’ Weems—Dolly Madison—George Tucker—Thomas Jefi'erson—Eliza Lewis Hening (Scher- merhorn)—Mrs. William Cabell Rives—Lesser poets: Garland, Marshall, N. B. Tucker, the Mitchells, Mrs.