M1 GERTRUDE A. CANFIELD. RS. GERTRUDE AUGUSTA CANFIELD is a native of Vicksburg, Miss. She was born in 1836, and on the second marriage of her mother, removed with her to the Parish of Rapides, La., where she has since resided. In 1859 she married, and her husband, the gallant Major Canfield, was killed in leading a desperate charge at the battle of Mansfield, April 8th, 1864. No man in Rapides was more universally liked and respected than Major Canfield, and the tribute of honor to his memory was general and spontaneous throughout the parish where he had resided and practised his profession—the law. Few among our war-stricken people have suffered more deeply than Mrs. Canfield. The loss of husband and children, the utter destruction of all her property, the necessity of providing for the wants of a helpless family, would have utterly overwhelmed a woman of less energy than herself. To this last circumstance (the struggle for support) is owing, in a great measure, the shortness and infrequency of her published writings. The few which have appeared in the "Louisiana Democrat" and New Orleans "Crescent" are marked by a sentiment and sensibility of a true poetic order. They convey the idea of culture, and a fancy which only scatters these slight lyrics from an abundance which will yet mature a work of more depth and pretension. But it is from Mrs. Canfield's unpublished writings that her friends draw the clearest prestige of her future literary success. A novel yet in manuscript (the publication having been delayed for a time) is marked by a force, a pathos, and a purity which must give her a high place among Southern writers. It is a tale which none but a woman could have written, from the insight it gives into a woman's heart and hidden springs of action; but it is also filled with characters and details masculine in their grasp of thought and treatment. When "My Cousin Anne" is published, we feel confident that the author will receive her reward, in part at least. We add purity as the crowning grace, for among the sensational and decollété writings of the present day, her mode of creation comes to us as a new revelation. Mrs. Canfield's lyrics are, many of them, spirited and good. They do not appear to be the result of deep thought and careful combination, but spontaneous outbursts which seek rhythmical cadences as the natural music of the song. What she has done already is nothing but an imperfect interpretation of powers, to which we look for more sustained effort and fuller work. CONFEDERATE GRAVES. Pause, careless stranger stop and turn aside; The long dank grass waves rustling in the wind, On all those graves there's not a single line To tell fond friends "Here the loved dust reposes;" Where trembling hands should strew memorial roses : Here rest the heroes of a hundred fields, Their dearest life-blood for their land and laws. But 'tis not so; shrined in our hearts they lie, Nor here alone,- the wide earth owns their fame; Shall they, her peerless champions, honored be. No tyrant's flat can that record tear, No rude hand cast those sacred tablets down; That sweeps in sounding surge o'er land and wave, THREE LOVES. My childhood's love was calm and light, Tinting my youth with hues Elysian; Again I loved—my girlhood's dream Just freed by Spring's first sunny hour: My womanhood was calmly cold; The flame that had so fiercely burned Was quench'd, and from its fiery fold My heart shrank quivering, tortured, spurned; And vainly deeming it had learned Had mocked my lips, my soul still yearned Despite experience' warning wise, Again I love!-the heart I thought Thrills to thy touch with passion fraught; As twilight to the deep midnight, OUR DEAD. Our dead! what tongue can tell their matchless story? What pencil paint the halo of their glory? What heart that does not for their sufferings bleed? The long Confederate Roll of Honor! every name Shrined in the sanctuary of the nation's heart, Wreathed round with laurel-leaves of deathless fame, Shall never from our memories depart. The war is over-Peace, benign and sweet, Brings back the festive gathering to each hall Whence mirth and the blithe sound of dancing feet With song and jest around the glowing hearth: Choke back the tears which yonder vacant seat Calls blinding to the eye:-give our dead rest, O Earth! Ay, give them rest from where Potomac's waves To where the Shenandoah's countless graves "Forget them, and be gay!" In vain! in vain! False is the smile that masks the brow of care, False is the laugh that mocks the heart's sore pain, False as our peace-like Dead-Sea apples, fair And tempting to the view, but ashes to the taste The Peace of Desolation!-the red simoom's sweep Blasting the green earth to a desert waste. Force smiles to your pale lips, all ye who weep, Bid every sound of lamentation cease, Welcome the dreary void and call it - Peace! Peace let it be- at least the war is over; Press the last kiss, gasp out the parting word. Discrowned, degraded, 'neath her anguish bow. Pause for a while, my Muse, and fondly turn, Blazon such deeds as only heroes dare. |