Poets of the South Part 23

[Footnote 10: This poem first appeared in the _Banner of the South_, April 4, 1868, and, like the preceding one, has been very popular in the South.]

[Footnote 11: Father Ryan felt great admiration for General Lee, who has remained in the South the popular hero of the war. In the last of his _Sentinel Songs_, the poet-priest pays a beautiful tribute to the stainless character of the Confederate leader:--

"Go, Glory, and forever guard Our chieftain's hallowed dust; And Honor, keep eternal ward, And Fame, be this thy trust!

Go, with your bright emblazoned scroll And tell the years to be, The first of names to flash your roll Is ours--great Robert Lee."]

[Footnote 12: This poem was first published in the _Banner of the South_, April 25, 1868. It ill.u.s.trates the profounder themes on which the poet loved to dwell, and likewise the Christian faith by which they were illumined.]

[Footnote 13: This mournful view of life appears frequently in Father Ryan's poems. In _De Profundis_, for example, we read:--

"All the hours are full of tears-- O my G.o.d! woe are we!

Grief keeps watch in brightest eyes-- Every heart is strung with fears, Woe are we! woe are we!

All the light hath left the skies, And the living, awe-struck crowds See above them only clouds, And around them only shrouds."]

[Footnote 14: This poem, as the two preceding ones, is taken from the _Banner of the South_, where it appeared June 13, 1868. It affords a glimpse of the tragical romance of the poet's life. The voice that he hears is that of "Ethel," the lost love of his youth. Her memory never left him. In the poem ent.i.tled _What?_ it is again her spirit voice that conveys to his soul an ineffable word.]

[Footnote 15: This desire for death occurs in several poems, as _When?_ and _Rest_. In the latter poem it is said:--

"'Twas always so; when but a child I laid On mother's breast My wearied little head--e'en then I prayed As now--for rest."]

[Footnote 16: This poem is taken from the _Banner of the South_, where it appeared June 29, 1870. In the volume of collected poems the t.i.tle is changed to _The Rosary of my Tears_.]

[Footnote 17: "Brave" is changed to "lone" in the poet's revision.]