Southern Life in Southern Literature

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Southern Life in Southern Literature (1917)
edited by Maurice Garland Fulton
764442Southern Life in Southern Literature1917Maurice Garland Fulton


THE LANIER OAK, FACING THE MARSHES OF GLYNN, NEAR BRUNSWICK, GEORGIA



SOUTHERN LIFE IN SOUTHERN
LITERATURE


SELECTIONS OF REPRESENTATIVE

PROSE AND POETRY



SELECTED AND EDITED BY


MAURICE GARLAND FULTON


PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH, DAVIDSON COLLEGE




GINN AND COMPANY

BOSTON . NEW YORK . CHICAGO . LONDON
ATLANTA . DALLAS . COLUMBUS . SAN FRANCISCO



COPYRIGHT, 1917, BY MAURICE GARLAND FULTON

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

217.1




The Athenæum Press

GINN AND COMPANY PROPRIETORS BOSTON U.S.A.


PREFACE

In this book I have endeavored to represent as adequately as might be possible within the limits of a volume of moderate size the work of the more important Southern writers. My attempt has been not merely to show the value of literary effort in the South as absolute achievement but also to emphasize its importance as a record of Southern life and character.

Taking literature in the stricter sense of fiction, essay, and poetry, I have omitted the historians, the biographers, and the political writers so frequently used to swell the bulk of Southern literature. In poetry I have endeavored to select poems which have attained some measure of general critical approval. But in some instances, especially in the Civil War poetry, I have included poems obviously without much literary merit because they were household poems of an older generation and embodied in a characteristic way the traditions and spirit of the people who loved them. For much the same reason I have included a few specimens of the vanishing survivals of old English ballads to the presence of which in the South attention has lately been turned.

In the case of the older prose writers, I have drawn upon a very limited number of the most significant works. As most of these were out of print or difficult to secure, I have tried to give a general idea of each by means of liberal excerpts and suitable summaries. Coming to the recent novelists and story-writers, whose number is almost legion, I was compelled to confine myself rigidly to the five pioneers in the new development of fiction in the eighties. The single departure from this principle in the case of William Sidney Porter ("O. Henry") will require no explanation. I have devoted much attention to the humorous writers of the South because of my belief that, although much of this work was rough and crude, it was nevertheless very influential not only in the development of American humor but also in that of realistic fiction.

Better to fit the book to the needs of students, I have tried to organize the material effectively. The table of contents will show that the arrangement is roughly chronological, with such subdivisions as would bring together writers of the same type of literature. Further aids to students have been given in biographical notes, summaries of literary developments, explanations of unfamiliar matters in the selections, and bibliographies—all being held to the briefest compass.

I have given at appropriate places in the book acknowledgments for permission to reprint such of the selections as were under copyright, but I wish here to record in a general way grateful appreciation of the courtesy extended to me in this matter by authors and by publishers.

M. G. F.

Davidson College,

Davidson, N. C.


CONTENTS
 
PART I. THE OLD SOUTH IN LITERATURE
ESSAYISTS AND DESCRIPTIVE WRITERS
WILLIAM WIRT page
The British Spy's Opinion of The Spectator 1
An Old Virginia Preacher 4
DAVID CROCKETT
The Bear Hunt 8
JOHN JAMES AUDUBON
Early Settlers Along the Mississippi 14
WILLIAM ELLIOTT
A Deer Hunt 19
ROMANCERS AND STORY WRITERS
EDGAR ALLAN POE
The Fall of the House of Usher 28
JOHN PENDLETON KENNEDY
Selections from "Swallow Barn" 50
Swallow Barn, an Old Virginia Estate 50
The Master of Swallow Barn 54
The Mistress of Swallow Barn 57
Traces of the Feudal System 59
The Quarter 64
Selections from "Horseshoe Robinson" 68
Horseshoe Robinson 68
Capture of Butler and Horseshoe 72
Horseshoe captures Five Prisoners 77
The Battle of King's Mountain 90
WILLIAM GILMORE SIMMS
Selection from "The Yemassee" 105
The Attack on the Block House 105
JOHN ESTEN COOKE
Selections from "The Virginia Comedians" 124
Mr. Champ Effingham of Effingham Hall 124
Governor Fauquier's Ball 128
HUMORISTS
AUGUSTUS BALDWIN LONGSTREET
The Horse Swap 151
The Turn Out 161
WILLIAM TAPPAN THOMPSON
Major Jones's Courtship 170
JOSEPH GLOVER BALDWIN
Ovid Bolus, Esq 176
How the Flush Times Served the Virginians 180
POETS
ST. GEORGE TUCKER
Resignation 188
FRANCIS SCOTT KEY
The Star-Spangled Banner 190
RICHARD HENRY WILDE
My Life is Like the Summer Rose 192
To the Mocking-Bird 193
EDWARD COATE PINKNEY
Song 194
A Serenade 194
A Health 195
MIRABEAU BUONAPARTE LAMAR
The Daughter of Mendoza 197
ALBERT PIKE
To the Mocking Bird 198
PHILIP PENDLETON COOKE
Florence Vane 200
Life in the Autumn Woods 202
THEODORE O'HARA
The Bivouac of The Dead 205
ALEXANDER BEAUFORT MEEK
A Song 209
Land of the South 210
The Mocking Bird 211
HENRY ROOTES JACKSON
The Red Old Hills of Georgia 213
My Wife and Child 215
JAMES MATTHEWS LEGARÉ
To a Lily 217
Haw Blossoms 217
WILLIAM GILMORE SIMMS
Oh, The Sweet South! 220
The Swamp Fox 222
EDGAR ALLAN POE
To Helen 225
Israfel 227
The Raven 228
Ulalume 233
Annabel Lee 237
Eldorado 238
PART II. POETRY OF THE CIVIL WAR
JAMES RYDER RANDALL
My Maryland 240
John Pelham 243
ALBERT PIKE
Dixie 244
HARRY McCARTHY
The Bonnie Blue Flag 246
JOHN ESTEN COOKE
The Band in the Pines 247
JOHN REUBEN THOMPSON
Ashby 249
Music in Camp 250
The Burial of Latane 253
WILLIAM GORDON McCABE
Dreaming in the Trenches 255
Christmas Night of '62 256
John Pegram 258
JOHN WILLIAMSON PALMER
Stonewall Jackson's Way 259
HENRY LYNDEN FLASH
Stonewall Jackson 261
THADDEUS OLIVER
All Quiet Along the Potomac To-night 262
MARIE RAVENEL DE LA COSTE
Somebody's Darling 264
CAROLINE AUGUSTA BALL
The Jacket of Gray 266
MARGARET JUNKIN PRESTON
Gone Forward 268
The Shade of the Trees 269
ANONYMOUS
The Soldier Boy 270
"The Brigade must not Know, Sir!" 271
The Confederate Flag 272
Lines on a Confederate Note 273
ABRAM JOSEPH RYAN
The Conquered Banner 275
The Sword of Robert Lee 277
HENRY TIMROD
Carolina 279
A Cry To Arms 282
Charleston 284
Spring 286
The Cotton Boll 288
The Lily Confidante 293
Magnolia Cemetery Ode 295
FRANCIS ORRAY TICKNOR
Little Giffen 297
The Virginians of the Valley 298
Unknown 299
Page Brook 300
Loyal 301
PART III. THE NEW SOUTH IN LITERATURE
HUMORISTS
RICHARD MALCOLM JOHNSTON
The Goosepond Schoolmaster 303
GEORGE WILLIAM BAGBY
Jud Brownin's Account of Rubinstein's Playing 308
NOVELISTS AND STORY WRITERS
GEORGE WASHINGTON CABLE
The Dance in Place Congo 314
JOEL CHANDLER HARRIS
Brer Rabbit grossly deceives Brer Fox 324
The Cunning Fox is again Victimized 328
MARY NOAILLES MURFREE ("CHARLES EGBERT CRADDOCK")
The "Harnt" that walks Chilhowee 332
THOMAS NELSON PAGE
Marse Chan (Summary) 342
The Training of the Old Virginia Lawyer 347
JAMES LANE ALLEN
Two Gentlemen of Kentucky 348
WILLIAM SIDNEY PORTER ("O HENRY")
Two Renegades 363
ESSAYISTS AND DESCRIPTIVE WRITERS
SUSAN DABNEY SMEDES
A Southern Planter's Ideals of Honor 373
BASIL LANNEAU GILDERSLEEVE
The Creed of the Old South 377
WILLIAM PETERFIELD TRENT
The Diversity among Southerners 389
POETS
PAUL HAMILTON HAYNE
A Dream of the South Winds 400
Aspects of the Pines 401
Macdonald's Raid-1780 402
The Pine's Mystery 405
The Will and the Wing 405
The Axe and Pine 407
Midsummer in the South 407
IRWIN RUSSELL
Nebuchadnezzar 410
Selling a Dog 412
Dat Peter 413
SIDNEY LANIER
The Tournament 416
Song of the Chattahoochee 419
The Crystal 421
Sunrise 422
JOHN BANISTER TABB
My Star 429
Killdee 430
Clover 430
Fame 431
JOHN HENRY BONER
Moonrise in the Pines 431
The Light'ood Fire 434
Poe's Cottage at Fordham 435
WILL HENRY THOMPSON
The High Tide at Gettysburg 437
SAMUEL MINTURN PECK
A Southern Girl 440
The Grapevine Swing 441
Aunt Jemima's Quilt 443
WILLIAM HAMILTON HAYNE
A Meadow Song 445
When Dogwood Brightens the Groves of Spring 447
ROBERT BURNS WILSON
To a Crow 448
Ballad of the Faded Field 448
FRANK LEBBY STANTON
A Plantation Ditty 450
The Graveyard Rabbit 450
Answering to Roll Call 451
MADISON JULIUS CAWEIN
The Whippoorwill 453
Evening on the Farm 454
JOHN CHARLES McNEILL
Away Down Home 456
An Idyl 458
Barefooted 459
Sundown 460
WALTER MALONE
October in Tennessee 461
SURVIVALS OF OLD BRITISH BALLADS
Barbara Allen 462
Lord Thomas and Fair Eleanor 464
The Hangman's Tree 467
The Wife of Usher's Well 469
George Collins 470
NOTES 473
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY OF SOUTHERN
LITERATURE 528



ILLUSTRATIONS


page
The Lanier Oak Frontispiece
Edgar Allan Poe 27
John Pendleton Kennedy 51
Major Butler and Horseshoe Robinson 73
William Gilmore Simms 105
John Esten Cooke 124
The Raleigh Tavern in Old Williamsburg, and its Famous Apollo Room 129
Blossom and his Horse, Bullet 152
Michael St. John, the Schoolmaster, effecting an Entrance by Storm 168
Tom Edmundson as Schoolmaster 186
Francis Scott Key 190
Woodlands, the Country Estate of William Gilmore Simms 221
Poe's Room at the University of Virginia, No. 13 West Range 226
John Reuben Thompson 248
Henry Timrod 278
Francis Orray Ticknor 296
George Washington Cable 313
Joel Chandler Harris 324
Mary Noailles Murfree 332
Thomas Nelson Page 342
James Lane Allen 349
Paul Hamilton Hayne 399
Copse Hill, the Home of Paul Hamilton Hayne 406
Irwin Russell 410
Sidney Lanier 415
Poe's Cottage at Fordham 435
William Hamilton Hayne 445
Madison Julius Cawein 452
John Charles McNeill 457