Literature, Principally Belletristic - University of Tennessee, Knoxville

· INTELLECTU AL LIFE IN THE COLONIAL SOUTH '
not become fully evident until his collected writings are published. The
depth, variety, and mastery of technique he possessed may thus become
evident.244 He demonstrates also even more than does Richard Lewis that
American poetry might be read in Britain as well as in the provinces in
which it was created.
But a word or two more on the lyrics to ladies. Even the misanthropic
and devout James Reid, the "Caledoniensis" whose satirical prose and
verse have been noticed above, wrote some of these occasional pieces. Two
at least were composed in neoclassical vein on love. The first, "The Sports
of Cupid: or, The Fever and Ague of Lovers," is the conventional Damon·
Celia affair followed by "A Play upon the Words FIRE, ICE, SNOW," concerning
the haughty Julia. These are in the Virginia Gazette of November
I7, I768. There is perhaps a little whimsy in the still conventionally
formed "A Billet Doux in the modern taste," of sixty-eight lines, beginning
Dear Madam, let this letter tell
The dictates of my mind;
And let thine eye propitious be,
And to its author kind.
Let his chaste wishes warm thy soul,
And turn thy lovely mind
Upon thy amorous swain that he
His wish'd for prize may find.
And whilst my heart before thee lies,
Both fervent and sincere,
Listen whilst I do yield it up
With this laconick prayer:
Dear Madam, hear a dying swain,
Redeem me from the grave;
And while I live I shall remain
Your very humble slave.
Another Virginian who was Scottish born made a name for himself as
a lyric poet and ballad writer before leaving his native country. This was
John Lowe (I750-I798 ). A little late for the colonial period, he breathed
the spirit of the verse which was to flower in Burns and Scott. His sentimental
"Mary's Dream" is the best known of his ballad verses. One version
of the first stanza is typical enough:
The moon had c1imb'd the highest hill,
Which rises o'er the source of Dee,
And from the eastern summit shed
Her silver light on tower and tree:
When Mary laid her down to sleep,
Her thoughts on Sandy far at sea;