Page:Southern Life in Southern Literature.djvu/525

Rh Moultrie in Charleston harbor. Saxon lands: Charleston was the port through which the Confederacy obtained supplies from England on ships that ran the Federal blockade.

QUESTIONS, i. What picture of the city is given? 2. What is said

of her future?

SPRING (PAGE 286)

germs: seeds. South: the south wind. Dryad: a tree nymph.

QUESTIONS, i. What aspect of spring is presented in the first part

of the poem? 2. What references to stirring events of Timrod s time does the last part of the poem contain?

THE COTTON BOLL (PAGE 288)

Small sphere: the boll or seed capsule of the cotton. cirque: a circular valley. Uriel: one of the seven archangels. touched our very swamps: the reference is to William Gilmore Simms, a fellow Charlestonian and friend of Timrod, who had written poems and romances in which the swamps were the backgrounds. Poet of

"The Woodlands": William Gilmore Simms, whose country place in Barnwell County, South Carolina, was called "Woodlands." flute s. . . trumpet s. . . west wind s: intended to symbolize different types of Simms s literary work. Cornwall: the southernmost county of England, bounded on three sides by water. It is noted for its mines of copper and tin, which extend in some places far under the sea bruit: report. Goth: the Northern soldiers. The Port which ruled the Western seas: New York. At that time it was considered by many Southerners, especially South Carolinians, as an unjust com petitor for trade with Charleston.

QUESTIONS, i. What incident starts the poet s train of thought?

2. What poetic description of the South as the land of cotton is given in lines 29-55? 3- "What details of Southern scenery are given in lines 56-92? 4. The work of what other Southern writer is referred to in lines 93-101? 5. What are Timrod s thoughts in lines 102-120 about the usefulness of the South s cotton to the world? 6. What con trast between this peaceful mission of the South and the present state of warfare in the South does the poet see in lines 122-145? 7- ^ nat hopes for the success of the Southern cause does the poet express in the remainder of the poem? 8. What qualities tend to make this a notable poem? 9. Is it too discursive?