Shelby County TN Archives News.....THE DEAD CONFEDERACY January 21, 1872
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DAILY ARKANSAS GAZETTE January 21, 1872
(First copied from abandoned <
http://members.cox.net/confed/poetry/poem99.html>)
newspaper copy courtesy, Butler Center for Arkansas Studies, Little Rock
Published in DAILY ARKANSAS GAZETTE Sunday, January 21, 1872, Front Page,
column1.
THE DEAD CONFEDERACY
by; Fanny Green BORLAND (1848AR-1879TN) (aka Violet Lea)
Pale, stark, and cold she lies in utter silence,
No more to rise up from that deathly swoon
To weeping States that whisper in great anguish,
"Dead, dead so soon."
AH! mourn for her with tender love and pity,
Ye men that strove to lengthen out her years,
A little child, grown old and gray with sorrow,
Demands your tears.
A little child with blood upon her ringlets,
A faded banner wapping her tired arms,
Bruised feet that falter in the sweet revealing
Of freedom's children.
Hushed into mute and reverent emotion,
The people pass beneath he heavy skies,
Knowing not to day, nor yet upon the morrow,
Will she arise.
Arise to spread her banner in rejoicing,
To beckon honor from the wanting years.
Who hints of faults, with every stain upon her
Washed out tars.
The faulty idol of a faulty people,
Who loved her better that her faults were theirs,
Who see her deaf, blind, dead to all perfection
The future hears.
As dead as those who sought to be her armour,
Who held their hearts as shields twixt her and death
And died to cherish into fuller being
The infant breath.
Strong hearts that in the rush and roar of battle
Poured out their noble blood like holy wine,
Wasting its wealth and richness on a broken
And blasted shrine.
A blasted shrine, yet even in its blighting
Crowned with the homage of a million hearts,
Whose burning tears poured out the last libation
That love imparts.
A faded hope, yet fairer in its fading
Than victory's temples reared above the dead,
And sweeter ---- blasted, faded, broken ---- than rich incense
For conquests shed.
Pale, pale she lies; the autumn cometh gently
And clasps its crimson fingers round her feet,
And throws a golden spell upon the forest,
As is most meet.
It is most meet that one who died in childhood,
Who smiled upon us from the purple west,
Should take, amid the crimson and the golden,
Her final rest.
She lieth cold; the sprite of the winter
Hushes the careless river at her side.
'Tis well, we think, that thus should sleep in silence
A people's pride.
She lieth still; we dare not sing her requiem.
The western star has faded out of sight,
Like her who was the idol of our worship,
Leaving us night.
-------<>-------
Additional Comments:
The above written under pen name 'Violet Lea' at Princeton, Arkansas in 1865 by
youthful Fanny Green Borland, just turned 17. It was printed in "London's
Cosmopolitan", Thursday, 21 Dec 1871, and on Front Page, Sunday, 21 January 1872, of
Little Rock's, Daily Arkansas Gazette, with article!
The "Cosmopolitan", in part printed;
"It is with a feeling of pride and sadness that we present this poem to
the British public,...", --- and,
"We are glad to take this young author by the hand and welcome her among
the ranks of the poets."
The Daily Arkansas Gazette printed the poem in column 1, Front Page, Sunday 21
January 1872, with lengthily article page 2, column 1, in part saying:
"No higher compliment could be paid to the young authoress, and we
have no doubt the many friends of her honored father, who once represented the state
in the highest legislative tribunal in the nation, will read with pleasure and
delight the high encomium paid her."
"Her first attempt at poetry, when she was but twelve years of age
(1860), was published in the GAZETTE. Even at that early age her fugitive pieces
were widely copied and favorably commented on by the press."
The Gazette, had on 22 November 1862, printed her, "The Past and Future", with
lead-in comment;
"Within the last four weeks, while a little girl, just fourteen years
old, sat by the sick bed of her Father [Solon BORLAND], as he slept, a few evenings
after the death of her Mother [23 October 1862, and brother George Godwin BORLAND,
24 June 1862, Clarksville, Texas], she composed the following lines. At the
suggestion of those who think favorably, alike, of the filial piety, and poetical
talent, they exhibit, they are published for the perusal of a circle of sympathising
friends."
To better understand this young, charming, talented teenager, one of the
belles-of-the-ball following the war, one needs only to read the 1983 published,
1863-1865 diary of artist/writer/school teacher Virginia Davis Gray (1834ME-1886AR),
annoted and published in Spring and Summer issues of Arkansas Historical Quarterly
by Professor Carl H. Moneyhon, University of Arkansas, Little Rock.
Fanny died a short but violent death during the morning of 23 August 1879, as did
her husband and her sister's husband with some 5,000 others in 1878, during the
yellow fever epidemic of Memphis, Tennessee.
We have located six of her poems;
The Dead Confederacy, At My Father's Feet, David O Dodd, Judge Not By The Outward
Look, To My Son's Scrape-Book, and one in upbublished diary of Mrs Gray about her
son Carl.
---
Missing and known are:
The Past and Future, The Baby of Lillie, Dilsey at the North, Born Dead, and 1878
tribute to Colonel Harvey Washington Walter, who died 1878 of yellow fever.
We are looking for more poems and additional information about Fanny Green (Borland)
Moores (aka Violet Lea).
The Dead Confederacy probably was the poem mentioned December 27, 1865 entry of
Virginia Davis GRAY's 1863-1865, 1983 published diary by Arkansas Historical
Quarterly,
Fanny's and sister Mollie's friend, teacher and surrogate mother.
Its said, the reason this poem was published in London's Cosmopolitan, 21 December
1871, with glowing words of praise for Fanny, was that Father Abram P Ryan
distributed her work in England.
Fanny was daughter of Mary Isabel Melbourne and U S Senator Solon Borland, M D, ---
named in honor of his aunt who raised him and her half-brother during their early
years at Suffolk, VA, born in Little Rock, September 1848 upon Major Borland's
return from fighting, being captured, escaping and helping in the capture of Mexico
City, of the Mexican-American War, --- after appointed and elected to the United
States Senate where he served until President Polk appointed him "Envoy
Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary" to Central America March 1853, turning
down Governorship of New Mexico territory.
MOORES (Borland), Fanny Green
Biography:
<
http://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/usgenweb/tn/shelby/bios/mooresbo3bs.txt>
Marriage:
<
http://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/usgenweb/tn/shelby/vitals/marriages/borland2m...
Obituary:
<
http://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/usgenweb/tn/shelby/obits/m/mooresbo2ob.txt>
GRAY-Beattie (Borland), Mollie
Biography:
<
http://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/usgenweb/tn/shelby/bios/graybeat4bs.txt>
Obituary:
<
http://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/usgenweb/tn/shelby/obits/g/graybeat8ob.txt>
File at:
http://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/usgenweb/tn/shelby/newspapers/thedeadc2nw.txt
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