Henry Timrod

Henry Timrod (December 8, 1828 – October 7, 1867) was an American poet from South Carolina, often called the Poet Laureate of the Confederacy.

Quotes

• Thy skirts indeed the foe may part,
  Thy robe be pierced with sword and dart,
  They shall not touch thy noble heart,
       Carolina!
  • "Carolina", st. V, 3

• Throw thy bold banner to the breeze!
  Front with thy ranks the threatening seas
  Like thine own proud armorial trees,
       Carolina!

  Fling down thy gauntlet to the Huns,
  And roar the challenge from thy guns;
  Then leave the future to thy sons,
       Carolina!

  • "Carolina", st. VII, 2–3
  • An adaptation of this poem , edited by G.R. Goodwin and set to music by Anne Curtis Burgess, was adopted as the official state song of Carolina in 1911.

• And down the dunes a thousand guns lie crouched,
  Unseen, beside the flood —
  Like tigers in some Orient jungle crouched
  That wait and watch for blood.

  Meanwhile, through streets still echoing with trade,
  Walk grave and thoughtful men,
  Whose hands may one day wield the patriot's blade
  As lightly as the pen.

  • "Charleston", st. 4–5

• Sleep sweetly in your humble graves,
  Sleep, martyrs of a fallen cause;
  Though yet no marble column craves
  The pilgrim here to pause.

  Stoop, angels, hither from the skies!
  There is no holier spot of ground
  Than where defeated valor lies,
  By mourning beauty crowned!

  • "Ode: Sung on the Occasion of Decorating the Graves of the Confederate Dead at Magnolia Cemetery, Charleston, S.C., 1867", st. 1 & 5

External links

• Poems of Henry Timrod: With Memoir and Portrait, 1901 edition at GoogleBooks