"A calm, a beautiful, a sacred star."
==

The poetic creed of Timrod, expressed in his "Vision of Poesy",
set the impress upon all his work. Conscious of his power,
he reverently believed in the mission of the poet as prophet and teacher, --

"The mission of Genius on Earth! To uplift,
Purify, and confirm, by its own gracious gift,
The world," --

and he has consecrated his gift to its noblest uses
in the discharge of that "high and holy debt".

As lover of man and nature, his sympathy was universal;
no theme was too humble for his pen. "The same law that moulds a planet forms
a drop of dew." "Humility is power!" "We may trace the mighty sun above
even by the shadow of a slender flower." Yet he dealt not with the fleeting;
that was only the passing form of the abiding. Passionately fond
as he was of Nature, and nourished and refreshed by her always,
he never wrote a line of mere descriptive poetry. Nature is only the symbol,
the image, to interpret his spiritual meaning. He felt with Milton,
in his noble words, that the abiding work is not raised
in the heat of youth or the vapors of wine, or by "invocation to dame Memory
and her siren daughters, but by devout prayer to that Eternal Spirit
who can enrich with all utterance and knowledge, and send out his seraphim
with the hallowed fire of his altars to touch and purify
the lips of whom He pleases."