CHORUS: I'll give my life for Dixie; Away, away; In Dixie's land I'll take my stand, And live and die for Dixie. Away, away, Away down South in Dixie. HATTERAS By JOSEPH W. HOLDEN [These lines were included by Longfellow in his edition of 'Poems of Places' (18761879). The author, Joseph W. Holden, a son of Governor William W. Holden, was born in Raleigh, North Carolina, in 1844. He was a student at the University of North Carolina for a short time, a Confederate soldier, Mayor of Raleigh, and Speaker of the House of Representatives. He died in 1874.] The Wind King from the North came down He paused, then wreathed his horn of cloud, The angry heavens hung dark and still, The billow checked its curling crest, Reflected darkness weird and dread, When nature died, and death lay dull- And not a timber creaked! Dim silence held each hollow hull, They cried like children lost and lorn, I would that I were never born!" For stoutest souls were terror-thrilled, And warmest hearts with horror chilled. "Come up, come up, thou torrid god, Thou lightning-eyed and thunder-shod, And wrestle here with me!” 'T was heard and answered: "Lo! I come from azure Carribee, To drive thee cowering to thy home, And melt its walls of frozen foam!" From every isle and mountain dell, From tide-built bars, where sea birds dwell, And sprang to meet the white-plumed North. Can mortal tongue in song convey False Hatteras, when the cyclone came, Fore'er nine sank! That lone hulk stands A hundred hearts in death are stilled, Smile on, smile on, thou watery hell, And toss those skulls upon thy shore; The sailor's widow knows thee well; His children beg from door to door, And shiver while they strive to tell How thou hast robbed the wretched poor! Yon lipless skull shall speak for me: "This is Golgotha of the sea, And its keen hunger is the same In winter's frost or summer flame. When life was young-adventure sweet- Though lonely once, strange folk have come, "Enough are here. O heed the cry, "I'M CONSCRIPTED, SMITH, CONSCRIPTED” By ALBERT ROBERTS [Albert Roberts, whose pseudonym was "John Happy," was formerly president of the American Newspaper and Publishing Company, of Nashville, Tennessee. "Twenty years ago," said Colonel Watterson in 1882, "he was the liveliest of the young journalists of the South; and did more to brighten the camp-fires of both armies than any of his contemporaries." The poem is, of course, a parody, and a very clever one, of General William Haines Lytle's "Antony and Cleopatra."] I'm conscripted, Smith, conscripted. Gather with the evening blast. Let thine arms, O! Smith, support me, Though my scarred, rheumatic "trotters" Won't exempt me as before; Though the Provost Guard surround me, I must to the "front" to perish, Let not the seizer's servile minions Mock the lion thus laid low! 'Twas no fancy drink that "slewed" him- He, who, drunk with bust-head whiskey, Should the base, plebeian rabble I'm conscripted, Smith-conscripted- Fare thee well! I go to battle, There to die, decay, and swell; THE ISLE OF LONG AGO [This poem has been described as "a wind-driven waif upon the great sea of American newspapers." It has been the subject of numerous newspaper controversies, the authorship being ascribed with equal confidence to Philo Henderson, of North Carolina, and to Benjamin Franklin Taylor, of Lowville, N.Y.]. Oh, a wonderful stream is the River of Time, |