Southern Literature From 1579-1895 Part 57

Moods and Memories.

Poems of Nature and Love.

Red Leaves and Roses.

THE WHIPPOORWILL.

(_From Red Leaves and Roses._[52])

I.

Above long woodland ways that led To dells the stealthy twilights tread The west was hot geranium-red; And still, and still, Along old lanes, the locusts sow With cl.u.s.tered curls the May-times know, Out of the crimson afterglow, We heard the homeward cattle low, And then the far-off, far-off woe Of "whippoorwill!" of "whippoorwill!"

II.

Beneath the idle beechen boughs We heard the cow-bells of the cows Come slowly jangling towards the house; And still, and still, Beyond the light that would not die Out of the scarlet-haunted sky, Beyond the evening-star's white eye Of glittering chalcedony, Drained out of dusk the plaintive cry Of "whippoorwill!" of "whippoorwill!"

III.

What is there in the moon, that swims A naked bosom o'er the limbs, That all the wood with magic dims?

While still, while still, Among the trees whose shadows grope 'Mid ferns and flow'rs the dew-drops ope,-- Lost in faint deeps of heliotrope Above the clover-scented slope,-- Retreats, despairing past all hope, The whippoorwill, the whippoorwill.

FOOTNOTE:

[52] By permission of the author, and publishers, G. P. Putnam's Sons, N. Y.

DIXIE.

I.

I wish I wuz in de land ob cotton, Ole times dar am not forgotten; Look away! look away! look away!

Dixie land.

In Dixie land whar I wuz born in, Early on one frosty mornin'; Look away! look away! look away!

Dixie land.

CHORUS.

Den I wish I were in Dixie, hooray! hooray!

In Dixie land I'll took my stand To lib and die in Dixie, Away, away, away down south in Dixie, Away, away, away down south in Dixie.

II.

Dar's buckwheat cakes and Ingen batter, Makes you fat or a little fatter; Den hoe it down and scratch your grabble, To Dixie land I'm bound to trabble.

LIST OF AUTHORS.

The following is a list of other authors and works that would have been included in the body of the book if s.p.a.ce had allowed. It is with great regret that only this mention of them can be made. See "List of Southern Writers" for fuller notice.

Allan, William: Army of Northern Virginia.

Asbury, Francis: Journals.

Blair, James: State of His Majesty's Colony in Virginia.

Bledsoe, Albert Taylor: A Theodicy, Is Davis a Traitor?

Brock, R. A.: Southern Historical Society Papers.

Burnett, Mrs. Frances Hodgson: That La.s.s o' Lowrie's.

Cable, George Washington: Bonaventure (Acadian sketches in Louisiana).

Caruthers, William A.: Knights of the Golden Horseshoe (tale of Bacon's Rebellion).

Dabney, Virginius: Don Miff.

Davis, Mrs. Varina Jefferson: Jefferson Davis.

Dinwiddie Papers.

Elliott, Sarah Barnwell: John Paget.

Goulding, Francis Robert: Young Marooners.

Hearn, Lafcadio: Youma.

Hooper, Johnson Jones: Captain Suggs' Adventures.

Ingraham, Joseph Holt: Prince of the House of David.

Jones, John Beauchamp: Rebel War Clerk's Diary, Wild Western Scenes.

Kouns, Nathan Chapman: Arius the Libyan.

Le Conte, Joseph: Geology, Science and the Bible.

Loughborough, Mrs. Mary Webster: My Cave Life in Vicksburg (in prison during the war).

McCabe, James Dabney, Jr.: Gray-Jackets.

McGuire, Mrs. Judith Walker: Diary of a Southern Refugee; (said to be a most faithful and pathetic picture of the terrible times in 1861-5. It was a private journal kept during the war, and Mrs.