Consequently,
in ante bellum days, the brilliant young men of the South had, like their
famous ancestors of Revolutionary times, abundance of material for
political and legal exposition, and continued to devote their attention to
public questions, to law, and to oratory, instead of to pure literature.
They talked while the North wrote.
In the days before the war, literature suffered also because the wealthy
classes at the South did not regard it as a dignified profession. Those who
could write often published their work anonymously. Richard Henry Wilde
(1789-1847), a young lawyer, wrote verses that won Byron's praise, and yet
did not acknowledge them until some twenty years later. Sometimes authors
tried to suppress the very work by which their names are to-day
perpetuated. When a Virginian found that the writer of
"Thou wast lovelier than the roses
In their prime;
Thy voice excelled the closes
Of sweetest rhyme;"
was his neighbor, Philip Pendleton Cooke (1816-1850), he said to the young
poet, "I wouldn't waste time on a thing like poetry; you might make
yourself, with all your sense and judgment, a useful man in settling
neighborhood disputes.
Pages:
345
346
347
348
349
350
351
352
353
354
355
356
357
358
359
360
361
362
363
364
365
366
367
368
369