To Rosa ----: Acrostic
Dedication





Introduction



"A true poet is one of the most precious gifts that can be bestowed
on a generation." He speaks for it and he speaks to it.
Reflecting and interpreting his age and its thoughts, feelings, and purposes,
he speaks for it; and with a love of truth, with a keener moral insight
into the universal heart of man, and with the intuition of inspiration,
he speaks to it, and through it to the world. It is thus

"The poet to the whole wide world belongs,
Even as the Teacher is the child's."

"Nor is it to the great masters alone that our homage and thankfulness
are due. Wherever a true child of song strikes his harp, we love to listen.
All that we ask is that the music be native, born of impassioned impulse
that will not be denied, heartfelt, like the lark when she soars up
to greet the morning and pours out her song by the same quivering ecstasy
that impels her flight." For though the voices be many, the oracle is one,
for "God gave the poet his song."

Such was Henry Timrod, the Southern poet. A child of nature,