The long agony of the American Civil War inspired a wealth of contemporary verse — from sentimental doggerel to sublime lyrics that rank among the finest American poetry. This inexpensive anthology brings together a superb selection of poems from both North and South, comprising the best and most representative poetry of those turbulent times.
Over 75 poems include works by many of America's greatest 19th century writers: Walt Whitman, Herman Melville, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, John Greenleaf Whittier, William Cullen Bryant, and many more. Also included are many fine poems by lesser-known poets of the period: Julia Ward Howe, Henry Timrod, Edwin Markham, Edmund Clarence Stedman, Francis Miles Finch, George Henry Boker, and more.
Among the selections in this volume: Julia Ward Howe's "Battle Hymn of the Republic," Ralph Waldo Emerson's "Boston Hymn," John Greenleaf Whittier's "Barbara Frietchie," "The Death of Slavery," by William Cullen Bryant, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's "Killed at the Ford," Henry Howard Brownell's "The Bay Flight," "All Quiet Along the Potomac Tonight" by Ethel Lynn Beers, "O Captain! My Captain!" and "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd" by Walt Whitman, and many more.
Ranging from boisterous calls to arms to poignant memorials for the slain, these poems reflect the heroism, horror, exaltation, and anguish of the bloodiest and most crucial conflict in the nation's history. Anyone interested in the Civil War or American literature of the period will want this collection on their bookshelves.