Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Henry Walcott Boynton, Reader's History of American Literature

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[206]

To thy will
Resigned, O Lord! we cannot all forget
That there is much even Victory must regret.
And, therefore, not too long
From the great burthen of oui country's wrong
Delay our just release!
And, if it may be, save
These sacred fields of peace
From stain of patriot or of hostile blood!
Oh, help us, Lord! to roll the crimson flood
Back on its course, and, while our banners wing
Northward, strike with us! till the Goth shall cling
To his own blasted altar-stones, and crave
Mercy; and we shall grant it, and dictate
The lenient future of his fate
There, where some rotting ships and crumbling quays
Shall one day mark the port which ruled the western seas.

If this is not quite great poetry, it is undeniably strong poetry, and this, we remember, is all that can fairly be said of almost all the poetry which was produced, and applauded, in the North during the same period. Timrod and Hayne, like Simms,--who also produced some creditable verse,--shared the privations of the South after the war.

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Edgar Allan Poe.

Of the two men whose names are most prominently associated with Southern literature, one had a Southern quality of mind rather than of political faith. In the case of Edgar