Does that quick and plaintive cry Burst from bosom sorrow-laden, Like the star-told agony Of a wretched, love-lorn maiden? Or contemning, like a sage, Mirthful strains attuned to folly, Tames it thus the minstrel’s rage With a song so melancholy? “Whippoorwill!” Music soothes our sorrows still, “Whippoorwill!” Hearts bereft of hope and light By the bolt of sorrow riven, ’Neath the friendly vail of night Tell their griefs to listening heaven; Like the lonely whippoorwill, Flying far from daylight’s din, To some thick and starless shade Like that which fills the soul within. “Whippoorwill!” Night befriends the mourner still “Whippoorwill!” Like a hermit in his cell, Where a holy vow has bound him, Long the night bird’s vesper bell Wakes the cloistered shades around him Sad as love beside the tomb Of its earliest, deepest sorrow Wails the bird till twilight’s gloom Fades away in dawning morrow-- “Whippoorwill!” And its cry is never still-- “Whippoorwill!” THE NEW SOUTH. DEDICATED TO R. W. KNOTT, EDITOR OF THE LOUISVILLE EVENING POST Sweet were my dreams along thy streams, Old South, in bygone days, Till war’s red cloud, ’mid thunders loud, Consumed them in its blaze: Sewanee’s old plantation scenes, Where wild bees filled the comb; The banjo and the moonlight dance Of old Kentucky Home. The New South wakes! the New South shakes The dew-drops from her mane, For idle grief brings no relief, The past comes not again; To manly hearts and patient souls Heaven sanctifies each loss; Two angels, Toil and Patience, bear To Heaven the Southern Cross. New South! New South! unseal thy mouth, Thy golden age is come-- Invention’s soaring harmony And labor’s busy hum. The Old South dies; with beaming eyes The New South hastens in; So boyhood’s toys are cast aside When manhood’s deeds begin. A FEVER DREAM. Ægri somnia vanæ Fingentur species.--_Horace._ Many a league have I traversed to-night, Many a league in painful flight, For demons pressed on my bleeding track And the air with their sounding wings was black Often, often, they came so near I felt their hot breath on my ear, And mad with terror, I bounded on Till the cock crew out at the glimmering dawn.