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SUMMARY
The lack of towns, the widely separated population, the aristocratic nature
of the civilization depending on slave labor, the absorption of the people
in political questions, especially the question of slavery, the attitude
toward literature as a profession, the poverty of public education, the
extreme conservatism and isolation of the South, and, finally, the Civil
War, and the period of reconstruction after it,--were all influences that
served to retard the development of literature in the South.
The greatest name in southern literature is that of Edgar Allan Poe, the
literary artist, the critic, the developer of the modern short story, the
writer of superlatively melodious verse. He was followed by Simms, who was
among the first in the South to live by his pen. His tales of adventure are
still interesting and important for the history that they embody. Timrod's
spontaneity and strength appear in lyrics of war, nature, and love. Hayne,
a skilled poetic artist, is at his best in lyrics of nature. Lanier's poems
of nature embody high ideals in verse of unusual melody, and voice a faith
in "the greatness of God," as intense as that of any Puritan poet.
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