Literary Hearthstones of Dixie by La Salle Corbell Pickett
page 44 of 146 (30%)
page 44 of 146 (30%)
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his working hours, the walls being papered wholly with cuts from
papers and periodicals. The furniture was decorated in the same way, even to the writing desk, which was an old work bench left by some carpenters. All had been done by the "bonny brown hands" that never wearied in loving service. Many of his friends made pilgrimages to the little cottage on the hill, where they were cordially welcomed by the poet, who, happy in his home with his wife and little son, lived among the flowers which he tended with his own hands, surrounded by the majesty of the pines whose Passion and mystery murmur through the leaves,-- Passion and mystery touched by deathless pain, Whose monotone of long, low anguish grieves For something lost that shall not live again. Hither came Henry Timrod, doomed to failure, loss, and early death, but with soul eternally alive with the fires of genius. In the last days of his sad and broken life William Gilmore Simms came to renew old memories and recount the days when life in old Charleston was iridescent as the waves that washed the feet of the Queen of the Sea. Congenial spirits they were who met in that charming little study where Paul Hayne walked "the fields of quiet Arcadies" and ... gleamings of the lost, heroic life Flashed through the gorgeous vistas of romance. Hayne had the subtle power of touching the friendliness in the hearts of those who were far away, as well as of the comrades who had walked |
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