In the preface of his poems these significant facts are stated:
"While I was yet an infant, my father with his family settled down in a wilderness, where I grew up with the population, rarely ever going out of the neighborhood for forty years. The old log school house, with a single window and a single door, was my alma mater, the green woods was my campus."
Yet what he learned in the log school house and the woods and by subsequent private study would put to shame very many who have enjoyed far better educational advantages; especially, when the further disadvantage under which he labored is considered. Early in life he became the victim of a serious spinal affection, which rendered him a confirmed invalid, unable the remainder of his days to stand upon his feet. Despite all these, to an ordinary man, crushing limitations, he became fairly proficient in Latin, French, German, and music, in addition to a thorough knowledge of the usual high school course in English, science, and mathematics.
To teaching, journalism, and literature he devoted his life. After a long and creditable career as teacher near his country home, during which time most of his poetry was written, he moved, about 1875, to Columbus, Mississippi. In the dingy office of the old Columbus Democrat, the writer first saw this unquestionably remarkable man. Cushioned in his wheel chair, before a desk, busy with his pen, Mr. Berryhill, the editor, saw not how closely he was observed, nor the look of pity he might have read in his beholder's face for one so handicapped in the race of life. But as the massive, thinly covered head was raised, and the dauntless, lofty spirit of the man shone from the dark and deep-set eyes; as the almost cheerful expression of his pallid countenance was revealed,—pity gave way to wonder and admiration, which grew yet more with further knowledge of the man and his achievements against odds apparently so overwhelming. How respectfully on bright Sundays when he could venture out, he was lifted in his chair by friends up the double flight of steps to the audience room of the church and rolled down the aisle to the place near the pulpit, sympathetic glances following him the while, is a picture, too, not soon to be forgotten.
During his stay in Columbus he was elected County Treasurer, which office he filled acceptably two years. In 1880 he returned to Webster county, where, as has been stated, he died, Jan. 8, 1887. Little else, for the lack of information, except that he was a Methodist and a Mason, can be said of the life and character of Mr. Berryhill. What more is given must be gathered from his writings in an inferential way, which for this purpose and for their literary merit, will repay the examination now proposed.
The editorials, sound, progressive, and patriotic, must be laid aside. The rather crude but racy character sketches, Indian legends, and miscellaneous short stories, written in part during his quiet closing years, must, also, more regretfully be left unnoticed for lack of time. His poetry is the work he prized most highly, and by it his place in literature should be determined.
From boyhood, he was irrepressibly poetic. The spirit of the woods and hills early descended on him, giving his eye unwonted keenness in discerning the beauty that surrounded him, and his ear unwonted delicacy in detecting the melody that floated in every breeze. Romantic stories of their better days told him by neighboring friendly Choctaws took deep root in his youthful fancy and bore fruit in his prose and verse.
In 1878 his poems written during the forty years previous were published at Columbus in a volume entitled "Backwoods Poems." Political issues of very serious nature, not altogether settled, were then too absorbing a theme to Mississippians to permit them to pay much heed to poetry, however excellent. Hence, the work received less notice than otherwise it would. But one edition was ever published, and few copies of it can now be found.
What first strikes the reader as he turns the pages of this unpretentious little volume is the variety and uniform excellence of the versification. Under the circumstances, it was natural to suppose that this poet would attempt little else than the rhyming couplet and the ballad form of verse. Instead, stanzas varying greatly in length and rhyme order, with lines from two to six stresses, iambic and often trochaic in movement, usually well sustained, soon make a strong impression that no common poetaster has set the music to these verses.
As to length, not more than half a dozen of the two hundred twenty-six poems in the collection contain more than one hundred lines. The longest and leading poem, called Palila, is a metrical version of a favorite Choctaw legend, numbering one thousand tetrameter lines. This pathetic story of an Indian maiden and her ill-starred gallant lover and the upshooting by the medicine spring of the little flower the pale-face calls the lady's slipper, but known to red men as Palila's Moccasin, is told with dramatic effect, and has the atmosphere of freedom and wildness befitting a tale so weird and sad. Bare mention of two or three other rather lengthy poems, such as "A Heart's History," and "The Vision of Blood," will be made, principally to call attention to the excellence of the blank verse in which they are written; its ease, accuracy, and vigor are readily perceived.