Birth of Lucas: tribute of love from me

When Daniel Bedinger Lucas was born there on March 16, 1836, the town of Charles Town was part of Virginia; today it is part of West Virginia, which legally separated into its own state during the Civil War. During that conflict, Lucas, a lawyer who studied at the University of Virginia as well as what was then called Washington College, sided forcefully with the Confederacy, a loyalty he often celebrated through his poetry. During the war, he attempted to rescue a friend who was to be executed as a spy, John Yates Beall. Lucas was unsuccessful and was unable to return to Virginia and instead hid out in Canada.

Upon his return to his family home, Rion Hall, where he was born, his home state had become West Virginia and he was barred from practicing law until he finally offered his oath to the Union in 1870. It was said that Lucas got his poetic sensibility, at least in part, from the picturesque surroundings of rural western Virginia where he was born and grew up. If that is the case, perhaps no better poem can be included her than his "My Heart is in the Mountains":

Right nobly flows the River James
   From Richmond to the Sea,
And many a hallowed mem'ry claims,
   And tribute of love from me;
But Western Tempe farther on—
   Mother of limestone fountains!
My heart goes back with the setting sun—
   My heart, my heart is in the Mountains!

There where the fringe-tree nods his plume,
   Beneath the white pine's shade—
There where the laurel drops his bloom
   O'er many a wild cascade—
There where the eagle seeks his nest—
   Mother of limestone fountains!
List to an exile's prayer for rest—
   My heart, my heart is in the Mountains!

The wide expanse of the boundless sea
   Is a sight to stir the soul,
And there is a breadth of majesty
   In the Western prairie's roll—
But give me the heights that milk the clouds,
   And gather the dew in fountains!
Give me the peaks, with their misty shrouds—
   My heart, my heart is in the Mountains!

There's something blank in the landscape here
   And tame in the water's flow—
I pine for a mountain atmosphere,
   And a crag in the sunset's glow!
King of the Hills! Blue Ridge that I love!
   Feed still the Vale with fountains,
From rock and dale, and mountain-cove—
   My heart, my heart is in the Mountains!

Shroud him, Spotless Banner

Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson was a beloved hero of the Confederacy during the Civil War. His death in 1863 inspired many poems and songs, including one by West Virginia writer Daniel Bedinger Lucas. Published in the Baltimore-based Southern Metropolis on March 20, 1869, the poem was likely meant to be sung. It is titled "Jackson's Grave" and begins with a quote from a contemporary biography of Jackson: "The Government shrouded Jackson in their battle flag, but the people shrouded him in May flowers" (he had died in May).

Fame had marked him from the cradle,
    Though the Soldier knew it not,
All unconscious of a mission,
    Save what holy living wrought;
Naught to him was vain ambition,
    Naught but fealty to the cause
Of God and Truth and Duty, made him
    All the hero that he was.

            Shroud him, Spotless Banner, hushing
            Shouts of Victory to rest.
            While his giant arms are folded,
            Grandly o'er the Warrior's breast!
            Here he sleeps in glory: let him!

Patriots ponder o'er this spot!
    For the soul that can forget him
Soon itself shall be forgot!
    Where this mound is held as sacred,
Men may overlook their chains,
    Wingless Victory defends them,
And eternal Hope remains.
                Shroud him, Spotless Banner, etc.—

Flowers of May, O! early Flowers,
    He was younger than you all;
For the bier that, scented, bore you,
    Was the cradle of his soul!
And this grave, so close and narrow
    Is the garden of his fame,
Which shall fill the earth forever
    With the perfume of his name.
                Shroud him, Spotless Banner, etc.— 

Lucas, who also wrote a poem in honor of Confederate Robert E. Lee, was a proud supporter of the Confederate cause even after the Civil War. In his poem to Jackson, he celebrates the man's piety and implies that the Union victory left the Southerners in chains but that the memory of Jackson gives them hope. One wonders if Lucas, nicknamed "The Poet Laureate of the Lost Cause," hoped for another rebellion.

Lucas on Lee: Lie still in glory!

Though Robert E. Lee had died in October 1870, Virginia poet Daniel Bedinger Lucas did not write his poem to the former General of the Confederate Army until January 19, 1871 — the day on which Lee would have celebrated his 64th birthday. The three part, 110-line poem "The Death of Lee" praises Lee as "the greatest man," "the greatest spirit," both in war and in peace, and finally as a paragon. Lucas seemed particularly pleased that Lee had died in the "autumn" of his life, "ere age could tame" him.

In the poem, Lee's role as a general portrays him as an underdog ("twice baptized in blood"), struggling with firm resolve against a superior foe, though accepting his victories with modesty ("Then, from the summit smiled on those who stood / Below, and simply said, 'I did the best I could!'"). However, both in success and in defeat, Lee held one major trait which Lucas praised:

Success, defeat, a truer meaning have:
   'Tis Virtue dominates eternally.
'Tis Virtue makes the freeman or the slave,
   From whose green heights of wingless victory,
Our hero, conquered—only shone the more,
As, half-eclipsed, the moon burns ruddier than before!

Those who were more literally enslaved might quibble with Lucas somewhat, the poem is more focused on Lee's character than his accomplishments. He "clamored not for rank nor place," was never envious, never "betrayed a friend, nor laid a rival low." He was never vindictive, never loved war, and hid a tenderness in his heart. Because in his life he was so simple, so down to earth, Lucas writes, "we magnify him dead!" Whether true or not, the poem leaves Lee without fault in his whole life (though Lucas opens a window for a potential rising of the Confederacy, in which the spirit of Lee will return and lead the new war):

Lie still in glory! hero of our hearts,
   Sleep sweetly in thy vaulted chapel-grave!
The splendor of the far-excelling stars departs—
   Not so the lustre of the godlike brave!
Thy glory shall not vanish, but increase,
Thou boldest son of war, and mildest child of peace!

Lie still in glory! patient, prudent, deep!
   O, central form in our immortal strife,
With an eternal weight of glory, sleep
   Within her breast, who gave thee name and life!
Lie very still! no more contend with odds!
Transcendent among men—resplendent with the gods!

Lie still in glory! faithful, fervent, strong!
   Perchance the land we love shall need a name:
Perchance the breath of unresisted wrong
   Shall blow enduring patience into flame:
If so, thy name shall leap from star to star
In thunder, and thy sleeping army wake to war!

Where Knowledge and Science are known!

When the University of Virginia turned 150 years old, alumnus Daniel Bedinger Lucas wrote a long dedicatory poem. He read the poem, "Semi-Centennial Ode," in front of the Society of Alumni on June 20, 1875. After referring to the school's founder Thomas Jefferson as "The Greatest American" and "Apostle of Reason" who had previously written the "Charter of Treason" (better known as the Declaration of Independence), the Virginia-born Lucas poetically claims that Jefferson was moved by a spirit which commanded him:

Build me a Temple of Learning, said she,
   Build me a Temple of stone —
Build for all ages: assuredly,
   Build for a man's Reason a throne;
For Freedom and Truth shall prosper
   Where Knowledge and Science are known!

That same spirit dictates the study not only of science but also of languages, philosophy, and more. Lucas also includes a very Americanist stance by calling for "Reason" as "the weapons of native power" and demands students never "bow to the alien pen!" He references only a couple of famous alumni, including fellow author Edgar Poe ("the harp of our Poe is unstrung"). Ultimately, Lucas claims that the 150-year old school is still young ("As this is her youth, I sing of her birth... For an Hundred years is a day upon earth, / And Fifty a morning in time"). The poem concludes:

From pillar, rotunda, arcade,
   From lecture-room, statue, and fane,
And landscape, and scholarly shade,
   And comrades saluted again,
And professor, and classmate and friend,
   And library, tome upon tome —
The beams of old memories lend
   New light as they welcome us home:
O, Mother! Fair Mother! refresh us,
   In the scope of thy bounteous dome!

Lucas: like the ebbing tide

Daniel Bedinger Lucas was born in the area of Virginia which later incorporated into the Union as West Virginia, though he himself fought for the Confederacy during the Civil War. He wrote poetry throughout most of his life, often about the Southern cause, earning him the nickname "The Poet Laureate of the Lost Cause" (a nickname offered to others as well).

One such poem, "In Memoriam," was used to dedicate a memorial to Confederate soldiers buried at Edge Hill Cemetery in the capital city of Lucas's home state. It is dated June 9, 1888:

And shall we then forget these heroes? Never!
    The Southern heart that boasts their memory not
    Shall be itself deservedly forgot,
While they in fame live on forever!

The sceptre, like the ebbing tide, departs,
    While like the granite cliff, whose stable form
    Hurls back the breakers, and resists the storm
Great deeds outwear all human arts!

And when some laggard age shall lack the light
    Of high achievement, or sublimer mood,
    Heroic travail, or great fortitude,
Here shall example serve the right!

Praised be their overtures to Liberty,
    Their courage, and their unbought sense of wrong!
    Sublimely faithful, and in patience strong,
Their deeds remain our legacy!