Paul
H. Hayne was descended from English settlers who came to Charleston in
Colonial days. He was the nephew of Robert Y. Hayne. His father was a
naval officer who died when Paul was still an infant. His mother was a
native South Carolinian. Hayne was born in Charleston January 1, 1830.
He attended the College of Charleston and ended up going into journalism.
Hayne was the editor of Russell’s, a leading Southern literary magazine.
He published his first volume of poetry in 1855. Two more volumes followed
in 1857 and 1860. Because of poor health, he did not fight as a soldier
in the Civil War, but instead was an aide on Governor Pickens’staff.
The shelling of Charleston saw his home and library burned down, and Hayne
retreated to Georgia, where he continue to live until his death in 1886.
From My Mother-Land
My Mother-land! thou wert the first to fling
Thy virgin flag of freedom to the breeze,
The first to front along thy neighboring seas,
The imperious foeman's power;
But long before that hour,
While yet, in false and vain imagining,
Thy sister nations would not own their foe,
And turned to jest thy warnings, though the low, Portentous mutterings,
that precede the throe
Of earthquakes, burdened all the ominous air; While yet they paused in
scorn,
Of fatal madness born,
Thou, oh, my mother! like a priestess bless'd With wondrous vision of
the things to come,
Thou couldst not calmly rest Secure and dumb
But from thy borders, with the sounds of drum And trumpet rose the warrior-call,
(A voice to thrill, to startle, to appall! )
"Prepare! the time grows ripe to meet our doom!"
Thy careless sisters frowned, or mocking said: "We see no threatening
tempest overhead,
Only a few pale clouds, the west wind's breath Will sweep away, or melt
in watery death." "Prepare! the time grout ripe to meet our
doom!"
Alas! it was not till the thunder-boom
Of shell and cannon shocked the vernal day, Which shone o'er Charleston
Bay,
That startled, roused, the last scale fallen away From blinded eyes, our
South, erect and proud, Fronted the issue, and, though lulled too long,
Felt her great spirit nerved, her patriot valor strong.
Death! What of death?
Can he who once drew honorable breath
In liberty's pure sphere,
Foster a sensual fear,
When death and slavery meet him face to face, Saying: "Choose thou
between us; here, the grace Which follows patriot martyrdom, and there,
Black degradation, haunted by despair."
Paul
H. Hayne was descended from English settlers who came to Charleston in
Colonial days. He was the nephew of Robert Y. Hayne. His father was a
naval officer who died when Paul was still an infant. His mother was a
native South Carolinian. Hayne was born in Charleston January 1, 1830.
He attended the College of Charleston and ended up going into journalism.
Hayne was the editor of Russell’s, a leading Southern literary magazine.
He published his first volume of poetry in 1855. Two more volumes followed
in 1857 and 1860. Because of poor health, he did not fight as a soldier
in the Civil War, but instead was an aide on Governor Pickens’staff.
The shelling of Charleston saw his home and library burned down, and Hayne
retreated to Georgia, where he continue to live until his death in 1886.
