Literature, Principally Belletristic - University of Tennessee, Knoxville

• INTELLECTUAL LIFE IN THE COLONIAL SOUTH ·
See where beyond the spacious Ocean lies
A wide waste Land, beneath the Southern Skies!
Where kindly Suns for Ages roU'd in vain,
Nor e'er the Vintage sow, or rip'ning Grain.
"Torno Chachi" is unlike the other two poems in verse form and subject.
It employs a ten-line variation of the Spenserian stanza and remains one
of the more dramatic expressions of the noble savage theme in the period.
What Stranger's this? and from what Region far?
This wond'rous Form, majestic to behold?
Uncloath'd, but arm'd offensive for the War,
In hoary Age and wise Experience old?
His Limbs, inur'd to Hardiness and Toil,
His strong large Limbs, what mighty Sinews brace!
Whilst Truth sincere, and artless Virtue smile
In the expressive Features of his Face.
His bold free Aspect speaks the inward Mind,
Aw'd by no slavish Fear, from no vile Passion blind.
A number of stanzas are devoted to this glorious red man and then several
to Oglethorpe, concluding that the founder will be remembered through
eternity as one of the great benefactors of mankind.274
A poem in praise of another great figure in this colony's earlier years
is to be found in the Gentleman's Magazine of November 1737 (VII,
697 ), "To the Rev. Mr. Whitefield, on his Design for Georgia." The
"advent'rous youth" is lauded for his zeal and vision. The September 1 7 44
London Magazine (XIII, 512) carried "In Answer to a Paragraph in a
letter from Charles-town, South-Carolina . . . which hoped the speedy
Return of General Oglethorpe to that Part of the World."
Written in the spring of 1757 were a pair of odes, one of thanks that
Governor Reynolds was departing for England, the other a welcome to incoming
Governor Ellis. The original manuscripts, each with five alternately
rhyming quatrains, have recently been reproduced in facsimile along with
a letterpress version. Intensely patriotic, they are very decent verse. The
lines on Reynolds begin :
'Tis done at Length the Tumults past,
The storm that Threat'ned us blown o'er;
R . .. G's Power has breath'd it's last,
Littl[e)'s vile Threats § are heard no more.
These five stanzas are signed "Americanus," but there is no signature for
those on Governor Ellis:
Welcome. thrice welcome! to our Land,
Georgia break forth in rapt'rous strain;