Page:Southern Life in Southern Literature.djvu/517

Rh ANNABEL LEE (PAGE 237)

This poem was published in the New York Tribune two days after Poe's death, and is one of his last poems. According to general acceptance Annabel Lee stands for the poet's wife, who had died about three years before.

highborn kinsmen: the angels who took Poe's wife from him.

QUESTIONS. 1. This poem has more definiteness of incident than Poe's poems usually show. What are the details of the incident? Should the sentiment be called morbid? 2. What qualities make this one of the most popular of Poe's poems?

ELDORADO (PAGE 238)

This poem is another one of the last of Poe's poems.

Eldorado: a fabled city or country abounding in gold and precious stones. Figuratively the word is used to denote any place of great wealth. Poe evidently uses the word in the sense of the poet's kingdom.

QUESTIONS. 1. Explain the meaning of the poem. 2. Can it be said to apply to Poe s life?

Other Poets. To the various states named belong the following poets who have not been represented in this book but who have attained some reputation in and beyond their respective states. Maryland: Charles Henry Wharton (1748–  ), John Shaw (1778–1809), Severn Teackle Wallis (1816–1894), George Henry Miles (1824-1871); Virginia: William Munford (1775–1825), William Maxwell (1784–1857), Richard Dabney (1787–1825), Henry Throop Stanton (1834–1899); South Carolina: Caroline Howard Gilman (1794–1888), Mary E. Lee (1813-1849), Catherine Gendron Poyas (1813–1882); North Carolina: Mary Bayard Clarke (1827–1886), Theophilus Hunter Hill (1836-1901), Edwin Wiley Fuller (1847–1875); Kentucky: George Denison Prentice (1802–1870), Amelia Welby (1819–1852); West Virginia: Daniel Bedinger Lucas (1836–  ): Alabama: Augustus J. Requier (1825–1887). Mississippi: Rosa Vertner Jeffrey (1826–1894); Georgia: Thomas Holley Chivers (1807–1858).

PART II. POETRY OF THE CIVIL WAR

JAMES RYDER RANDALL

MY MARYLAND (PAGE 240)

This poem was written while the author was teaching in Louisiana. In April, 1861, he read in one of the New Orleans newspapers an account of how the Massachusetts troops had been fired upon in their passage