ates, and the Union warships were blockading the coast. Gibraltar, guarding the entrance to the Mediterranean. PAUL HAMILTON HAYNE 19. Calpe: the Rock of (494) THE MOCKING-BIRDS. Reprinted, by the courtesy of Professor W. P. Trent and the Macmillan Company, from Southern Writers. The poem was first published, says Professor Trent, in The Manhattan Magazine. (496) A LITTLE WHILE I FAIN WOULD LINGER YET. The text is from the 1882 edition. POEMS OF THE CIVIL WAR The texts are chiefly from Songs of the Soldiers (1864), Rebel Rhymes (1864), and War Lyrics (1866). (499) MARYLAND! MY MARYLAND. The text is from the 1910 edition of Randall's poems. First published in the New Orleans Delta, April 26, 1861. The poem was occasioned by a conflict in Baltimore between Union troops and a mob, on April 19, 1861, when forces were hurrying to the defense of Washington; several persons were killed on each side. The lines are an appeal to Maryland to join the seceding states. (500) 21. Carroll: Charles Carroll was a delegate from Maryland to the Continental Congress, and one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. 22. Howard's: John E. Howard was a Revolutionay officer, and did gallant service in the battle of Cowpens, in 1781, when the British were overwhelmingly defeated. ¶ 29. Ringgold's: Major Samuel Ringgold, who was mortally wounded in the first battle of the Mexican War, in 1846. 130. Watson's: Colonel William H. Watson was killed in the battle of Monterey, in 1846. 31. Lowe May: leaders in the protest of Maryland, in 1861, against the efforts of the federal government to suppress Southern sentiment in Maryland; Lowe was governor. ¶ 39. In 1861, "And add a new Key to thy song"; an allusion to F. S. Key, author of "The Star-Spangled Banner," who was born in Maryland. ¶ 46. "Sic semper": part of the motto of Virginia, "Sic semper tyrannis," "Thus ever to tyrants." (501) BALTIMORE. The poem was occasioned by the same incident as the preceding; the Baltimore riot stirred Massachusetts the more because one of the two regiments attacked was the Sixth Massachusetts. ¶8. the Theban shaft: a colossal statue of Memnon (not a shaft), at Thebes in Egypt, was fabled to utter a sound when touched by the rays of the rising sun. (502) THE STARS AND STRIPES. ¶ 4. 'single star': the flags first displayed by some of the seceding states had only one star. (503) 13. Keystone State: Pennsylvania. ¶ 18. Saratoga's tree-crown'd heights, Monmouth's bloody plain: scenes of famous battles in the Revolution. ¶ 31. Minnehaha's sparkling falls: in Minnesota. Kansas' land of blood: from 1854 to 1858 there was a fierce and often bloody struggle in Kansas to decide whether it should be slave territory or free; see "How Old Brown Took Harper's Ferry," p. 516. 38. Western Twins: California and Oregon. (504) 49. Camden's bloody field and Eutaw's iron scars: allusions to battles in the Revolutionary War, in which North and South fought together for their common country. 51. thee: Kentucky; the name, which is an Indian word, is said to mean "dark and bloody ground," the district having been a favorite huntingground for red men. 52. a way of peace: Kentucky tried for a time to maintain an attitude of neutrality between North and South. ¶ 57. West Virginia: in 1861 a popular convention of the counties now constituting West Virginia passed an ordinance providing for the formation of a new state; a constitution was adopted in 1862, and the state was admitted to the Union in 1863; the causes for the separation were economic and social as well as political. ¶ 67. oriflamme=battle-flag; the word comes, through the French, from Latin aurum, "gold," and flamma, "flame," and was used originally of the French ensign, a red flag borne on a gilded lance. ¶68. bars: the first national Confederate flag had three broad bands (two red and one white), called bars, instead of the thirteen stripes of the Union flag. (506) AFTER THE BATTLE OF BULL RUN. Bull Run is a small river about twenty-five miles southwest of Washington; here was fought the first great battle of the Civil War, on July 21, 1861, in which the Union army was badly routed. (507) BATTLE-HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC. The text is from the 1866 edition of Mrs. Howe's poems. First published in The Atlantic Monthly, February, 1862. ¶ 1-4. Cf. Rev. 19:11, 14, 15: "And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the wine-press of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God." ¶ 11. Cf. 'Gen. 3:15. (508) STONEWALL JACKSON'S WAY. man" (literally, "in the form of a pauper"). 122. In forma pauperis="as a poor (509) THE SONG OF THE REBEL. Stanzas 27-31. 8. "Without reproach or fear": a translation of the phrase "sans peur et sans reproche," used of the Chevalier de Bayard. (510) 29. "Light Horse Harry": Henry Lee, a gallant officer in the Revolution, the father of Robert E. Lee. (510) AN INCIDENT OF THE WAR. "On one occasion, during the war in Virginia, General Lee was lying asleep by the wayside, when an army of 15,000 men passed by with hushed voices and footsteps lest they should disturb his slumbers.— Prefatory note, in War Lyrics. (512) SHERIDAN'S RIDE. The text is from the 1865 edition of Read's poems. The poem is founded on an incident in the battle of Cedar Creek, in the Shenandoah Valley, Virginia, October 19, 1864: Sheridan's army was surprised and routed in the early morning, while he was returning from a visit to Washington; at Winchester, twenty miles away, he heard the sounds of battle, galloped to the scene, rallied his troops, shouting, "Face the other way, boys! We are going back!" and won a victory. (514) THE HIGH TIDE AT GETTYSBURG. First published in The Century Magazine, July, 1888, from which the text is taken. "The poem was composed," writes the author to the present editor, "a year before that time, while I was making a geological survey of some of the northern counties of Indiana." Mr. Thompson is a Southerner, and fought throughout the Civil War on the Confederate side; since 1868 he has lived in the North. (515) 18. Kamsin wind: a hot southeast wind that blows in Egypt for fifty days every year, beginning in March. EDMUND CLARENCE STEDMAN (516) How OLD BROWN TOOK HARPER'S FERRY. The text is from the 1860 edition. First published in The New York Tribune, November 12, 1859. John Brown, born in Connecticut in 1800, settled in Kansas in 1855 and became prominent in the fight to keep slavery out of that territory; he got his surname of "Osawatomie" by defeating a party of slaveholders at Osawatomie in 1856; he removed to Virginia, and, in pursuit of a purpose to liberate the slaves by arming them and rousing them to revolt, he and a few companions seized the arsenal at Harper's Ferry on October 16, 1859, and took captive some of the chief citizens; but the slaves did not rise, and Brown was captured on October 18, severely wounded; on October 27 he was tried and found guilty of treason and murder, and was hanged on December 2. (518) 46. turned parson: Brown had studied for the ministry in his youth. (519) 79. the Emperor's coup d'état: in 1851 Louis Napoleon, nephew of Napoleon I, overthrew the French Republic, of which he was president, and became emperor of France. (520) PAN IN WALL STREET. First published in The Atlantic Monthly, January, 1867, from which the text is taken. (522) 45. Trinacrian=Sicilian; "Trinacria" was an old name for Sicily, from its "three promontories." ¶ 54. Ægon: a neatherd boxer, mentioned in the fourth idyl of Theocritus. 76. Arethusan: Arethusa was a famous spring in Sicily. (523) 86. "Great Pan is dead": there was an old tradition that, at about the time of the Crucifixion, certain voyagers from Italy to Cyprus heard a voice at sea crying that the great god Pan was dead. ALICE CARY (523) SOMETIMES. The text is from the 1866 edition. JOAQUIN MILLER . The text is from the 1882 edition. (525) THE SHIP IN THE DESERT. Section 13, 11. 121-39. SIDNEY LANIER The text is from the 1884 edition. (525) NIGHT AND DAY. First published in The Independent, July, 1884. Cf. Othello, V. ii. (526) SONG FOR "THE JACQUERIE." "The Jacquerie" is an uncompleted poem on the bloody revolt of the French peasants (called "Jacquerie," from "Jacques," the common name for a peasant) against the nobles, in 1358. (527) THE MARSHES OF GLYNN. First published in The Masque of Poets. Glynn is a county on the coast of Georgia, the poet's native state. (530) How Love LOOKED FOR HELL. First published in The Century Magazine, March, 1884. (532) 85. Read=interpret. EMILY DICKINSON The text is from the 1891 and 1892 editions. |