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Poets of the South

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[Footnote 2: The location of _The Valley of Silence_ is given in the
last stanza.]

[Footnote 3: This poem may be taken, in a measure, as autobiographic. In
this stanza, and the two following ones, the poet refers to that period
of his life before he resolved to consecrate himself to the priesthood.]

[Footnote 4: This indicates the general character of his poetry. Inspired
in _The Valley of Silence_, it is sad, meditative, mystical, religious.]

[Footnote 5: Perhaps every poet has this experience. There come to him
elusive glimpses of truth and beauty which are beyond the grasp of
speech. As some one has sung:--

"Sometimes there rise, from deeps unknown,
Before my inmost gaze,
Far brighter scenes than earth has shown
In morning's orient blaze;
I try to paint the visions bright,
But, oh, their glories turn to night!"]

[Footnote 6: This poem was first published in Father Ryan's paper, the
_Banner of the South_, March 21, 1868, from which it is here taken. Coming
so soon after the close of the Civil War, it touched the Southern
heart.]

[Footnote 7: For a criticism of the versification of this stanza, see the
chapter on Father Ryan.]

[Footnote 8: This note of pardon, in keeping with the poet's priestly
character, is found in several of his lyrics referring to the war. In
spite of his strong Southern feeling, there is no unrelenting bitterness.
Thus, in _The Prayer of the South_, which appeared a week later, we
read:--

"Father, I kneel 'mid ruin, wreck, and grave,--
A desert waste, where all was erst so fair,--
And for my children and my foes I crave
Pity and pardon. Father, hear my prayer!"]

[Footnote 9: This was the poet's feeling in 1868. In a similar strain we
read in _The Prayer of the South_:--

"My heart is filled with anguish deep and vast!
My hopes are buried with my children's dust!
My joys have fled, my tears are flowing fast!
In whom, save Thee, our Father, shall I trust?"

Happily the poet lived to see a new order of things--an era in which vain
regrets gave place to energetic courage, hope, and endeavor.]

[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 illustrates 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 God! 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 entitled _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 title
is changed to _The Rosary of my Tears_.]

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

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