OF Southern Poetry (1607-1907) CALIFORNIA CARL HOLLIDAY, M.A. Professor of English Literature, Cox College, Atlanta. Author of NASHVILLE, TENN.; DALLAS, TEX. PREFACE. WITHIN the last decade the interest in Southern literature has become widespread. Nearly every Southern college and university now offers a course in the subject, and the summer schools and Chautauquas frequently make it a special feature. All this is as it should be. There are Southern writers scarcely known by name to-day who are deserving of careful attention. Especially is this true among the Southern poets, who, amidst prosperity and adversity, have sung songs of gladness and of sorrow that stand among the finest productions in American literature. How few of them are intimately, lovingly known at the present day! This collection is made in the hope that still further interest may be aroused. Other collections have been made, but they have dealt almost entirely with the poets living in the first sixty years of the nineteenth century. In the present compilation specimens are given from three centuries of Southern verse-from 1607 to 1907. Because of this fact the book, it is hoped, will be of interest not only to students of literature, but also to students of history and to lovers of the old and curious in general. In the preparation of this work many courtesies have been extended to me. To the publishers and holders of copyrights whose kind permission to use selections has been granted me, I make grateful acknowledgments. My special thanks are due Dr. W. P. Trent, of Columbia University, Dr. William H. Browne, of Johns Hopkins University, Mrs. Janey Hope Marr, of Blacksburg, Va., Messrs. Brentano, of New York, and B. F. Johnson Publishing Company, the authorized publishers of Timrod's poems. Without their help this volume could not have reached its present form. Cox College, Atlanta. CARL HOLLIDAY. |