Anonymous poetry collection, 1877-2001.

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Anonymous poetry collection, 1877-2001.

Anonymous poetry collection, 1877-2001.

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/747045936

Consisting of 6 anonymous and unattributed 19th-century manuscript poems, (1877 and undated) together with cover letter, 10 July 2001, from Betty Jane Miller (Barnwell, S.C.), forwarding the manuscripts to Dr. James E. Kibler (English Department, University of Georgia), for his review. Letter indicates that the poems were retrieved from an abandoned house in the Boiling Springs community of Barnwell County, S.C. One untitled poem, parodying Edgar Allen Poe's "The Raven," is penned on an account current ledger sheet of the Farmville Insurance and Banking Co. (Farmville, Va.; commenced business 1871). [Although this parody is known to have been published in the U.S., England, New Zealand and elsewhere during subsequent years, an early example appeared under the title, "The Blackbird," in the 8 Nov. 1865 issue of The Daily Phoenix (Columbia, S.C.), with an attribution to the New York Mercury newspaper. This date falls subsequent to the departure of William Gilmore Simms, who served as editor of the Phoenix from March to October, 1865. In foreign publications of subsequent decades, this work appeared under the title, "The Blackbird that Could Sing but Wouldn't Sing (A Lyric of the American Southern States)"]. Another undated poem, titled "Feddy & the Robin," indicates that it was set to the meter of the popular British Isles ballad "The Grave of Bonaparte" and notes that the incident it recounts took place "at the Boiling Springs in the winter of '49-'50." The sole poem bearing date, Barnwell, [S.C.], 19 May 1877, opens "I am growing old & feeble & I cannot work no more...."

7 items (1 folder)

University of South Carolina, System Library Service, University Libraries