To the reader
unfamiliar with coastal Carolina, the unique aspects of its landscapes
may seem exaggerated in these pages; the observant visitor and the
native will, it is hoped, recognize that neither the colors nor the
shadows are too strong. These poems, however, are not local only, they
are stories and pictures of a chapter of American history little known,
but dramatic and colorful, and in the relation of an important part to
the whole they may carry a decided interest to the country at large.
Local color has a fatal tendency to remain local; but it is also true
that the universal often borders on the void. It has been said, perhaps
wisely, that the immediate future of American Poetry lies rather in the
intimate feeling of local poets who can interpret their own sections to
the rest of the country as Robinson and Frost have done so nobly for New
England, rather than in the effort to _yawp_ universally. Hence there is
no attempt here to say, "O New York, O Pennsylvania," but simply, "O
Carolina."
The South, however, has been "interpreted" so often, either with
condescending pity or nauseous sentimentality, that it is the aim of
this book to speak simply and carefully amid a babel of unauthentic
utterance.
Pages:
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25