Oh, land of heroes! Spartan State!
In numbers few, in daring great,
Thus to affront the frown of fate!
And while mad triumph rules the hour,
And thickening clouds of menace lower,
Bear back the tide of tyrant power.
With steadfast courage, faltering never,
Sternly resolved, her bonds to sever:
Hail, Carolina! free forever!
This may be the expression of the hour, but it proved as well to be the poetic sentiment of the next four years. Every poet of the South, from the humblest maker of camp catches to the greatest of her lyrists, shared this attitude of resolve, as they watched their Spartan nation continue to wage what they consented to be a righteous war for freedom, against a tyrant power. Naturally, expression became more sharply crystalized with the actual invasion. None the less, even thus early, before the end of ’60, we have a precise foreshadowing of the war attitude of the Confederate poet.