Timrod
was probably the most popular poet in South Carolina in the mid-nineteenth
century. He was part of a circle of Southern poets who published in Russell's
Magazine, which was one of the best literary journals in the South immediately
before the Civil War. He only published one book during his life (Poems
in 1859) but between newspaper and magazine publishing he earned a reputation
as "the Laureate of the Confederacy" by the time he died in
1867.
Sonnet: I Know Not Why
I know not why, but all this weary day,
Suggested by no definite grief or pain,
Sad fancies have been flitting through my brain:
Now it has been a vessel losing way
Rounding a stormy headland; now a gray
Dull waste of clouds above a wintry main;
And then a banner drooping in the rain,
And meadows beaten into bloody clay.
Strolling at random with its shadowy woe
At heart, I chanced to wander hither! Lo!
A league of desolate marsh-land, with its lush,
Hot grasses in a noisome, tide-left bed,
And faint, warm airs, that rustle in the hush
Like whispers round the body of the dead!
Timrod
was probably the most popular poet in South Carolina in the mid-nineteenth
century. He was part of a circle of Southern poets who published in Russell's
Magazine, which was one of the best literary journals in the South immediately
before the Civil War. He only published one book during his life (Poems
in 1859) but between newspaper and magazine publishing he earned a reputation
as "the Laureate of the Confederacy" by the time he died in
1867.
