Call on thy children of the hill,
Wake swamp and river,
 coast and rill,
Rouse all thy strength and all thy skill,
Carolina! Carolina!
 
This stirring summons forms the opening stanza of Henry Timrod’s epic poem, Carolina.  Predestined to a literary life, Henry was born in 1828 to William Timrod, a published poet, and bookbindery proprietor. His father’s shop was a gathering place for aspiring Charleston writers: luminaries such as William Gilmore Simms, James Louis Petigru, and Rev. Samuel Gilman.

Although not wealthy, the Timrods managed to send Henry to a elite private school in Charleston, and with financial assistance from a wealthy friend, Timrod attended the University of Georgia in 1845.  He withdrew, unsatisfied with the school, after less than two years.  In 1849, The Southern Literary Messenger launched his professional career by publishing his works.  Supplementing his income, Timrod tutored prominent planters’ children, until, in 1860, a small volume of Timrod’s poems was published to critical, if not financial, acclaim.

Preceding the Civil War, Timrod was employed at Orange Grove Plantation near Florence.  After the first shots were fired on Fort Sumter, Timrod turned his pen to extolling the virtues of the Southern cause.  Enlisting for military service, his poor health prevented his service on Confederate front lines.  Discontent at home, Timrod worked as a war correspondent in the Western theater.  Life in the field further deteriorated his health, forcing him to return home, where he continued writing prolifically.  His patriotically inspired verse earning him the sobriquet “The Poet Laureate of the Confederacy.”
 
In 1864, Timrod secured an associate editor position at the Columbia newspaper, South Carolinian, but an 1865 fire destroyed much of the city, claiming Timrod’s job at the newspaper.  Desperate for work, he sent submissions to Northern papers, without success.  Absent the assistance of friends, Timrod would have been destitute.  His final years a financial and physical struggle, tuberculosis claimed the gifted poet’s life in 1867.  He was laid to rest at Trinity Church graveyard in Columbia.    

In 1901, the Timrod Memorial Association of South Carolina raised funds by selling Timrod’s poems, and erected a bronze bust in Washington Square Park, behind City Hall.  The image below  taken after its unveiling, pictures the  bust, alongside the Washington Light Infantry Monument and the Fireproof Building.

Interestingly enough Timrod would garner national attention once again in 2006.    An article in the New York Times brought to light similarities between Bob Dylan's lyrics on his Modern Times Album and the poetry of Timrod  (This article on the Poetry Foundation's website covers this debate pretty thoroughly).

  In 1911, at the urging of the Daughters of the American Revolution, Timrod’s poem, Carolina was set to music by Miss Anne Custis Burgess, and honored as the state song of South Carolina.  The closing lines of the song are a fitting tribute to the valor of the state and to the life of Timrod himself.
 
Girt with such wills to do and bear,
Assured in right,
 and mailed in prayer,
Thou wilt not bow thee to despair,
Carolina! Carolina!
__________________

Top Image- Making of America-Cornell
Bottom Image- Library of Congress

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