Page:Southern Life in Southern Literature.djvu/458

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SOUTHERN LIFE IN SOUTHERN LITERATURE


God lives! He forged the iron will That clutched and held that trembling hill. God lives and reigns! He built and lent The heights for Freedom s battlement Where floats her flag in triumph still! Fold up the banners! Smelt the guns! Love rules. Her gentler purpose runs. A mighty mother turns in tears The pages of her battle years, Lamenting all her fallen sons!

SAMUEL MINTURN PECK

[Samuel Minturn Peck was born in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, in 1854. After graduating from the University of Alabama he studied medicine in New York. He began writing about his twenty-fifth year, and has collected his poems into several volumes published at various inter vals. He has also written stories collected under the title "Alabama Sketches."] A SOUTHERN GIRL 1 Her dimpled cheeks are pale; She s a lily of the vale, Not a rose. In a muslin or a lawn She is fairer than the dawn To her beaux. Her boots are slim and neat, She is vain about her feet It is said. 1 The selections from Samuel Minturn Peck are here reprinted through the permission of the holder of the copyright, Frederick A. Stokes Company.