"Sometimes there rise, from deeps unknown,
Before my inmost gaze,
Far brighter scenes than earth has shown
In morning's orient blaze;
I try to paint the visions bright,
But, oh, their glories turn to night!">[
[Footnote 6: This poem was first published in Father Ryan's paper, the Banner of the South, March 21, 1868, from which it is here taken. Coming so soon after the close of the Civil War, it touched the Southern heart.]
[Footnote 7: For a criticism of the versification of this stanza, see the chapter on Father Ryan.]
[Footnote 8: This note of pardon, in keeping with the poet's priestly character, is found in several of his lyrics referring to the war. In spite of his strong Southern feeling, there is no unrelenting bitterness. Thus, in The Prayer of the South, which appeared a week later, we read:—
"Father, I kneel 'mid ruin, wreck, and grave,—
A desert waste, where all was erst so fair,—
And for my children and my foes I crave
Pity and pardon. Father, hear my prayer!">[
[Footnote 9: This was the poet's feeling in 1868. In a similar strain we read in The Prayer of the South:—
"My heart is filled with anguish deep and vast!
My hopes are buried with my children's dust!
My joys have fled, my tears are flowing fast!
In whom, save Thee, our Father, shall I trust?"
Happily the poet lived to see a new order of things—an era in which vain regrets gave place to energetic courage, hope, and endeavor.]
[Footnote 10: This poem first appeared in the Banner of the South,
April 4, 1868, and, like the preceding one, has been very popular in the
South.]
[Footnote 11: Father Ryan felt great admiration for General Lee, who has remained in the South the popular hero of the war. In the last of his Sentinel Songs, the poet-priest pays a beautiful tribute to the stainless character of the Confederate leader:—