Henry timrod biography
•
3 minutes to read
Poet, essayist. Timrod was born on December 8, , in Charleston, South Carolina, the only son of a bookbinder, William Henry Timrod, and his wife, Thyrza Prince. Hedged by poverty, frail health, and the cataclysm of the Civil War, Timrod led a brief tubercular life that bore the stamp of the romantic tradition that he revered and defended among his neoclassical contemporaries in Charleston’s antebellum literary circles.
Timrod attended the prestigious Classical School, where he befriended his life- long ally and fellow poet Paul Hamilton Hayne. As a young man, Timrod enjoyed solitude, nature, and the contemplation of romantic love and death. William Gilmore Simms found Timrod “morbid,” but the ever-loyal Hayne memorialized him as “passionate, impulsive, [and] eagerly ambitious.” When scant resources precluded his graduation from the University of Georgia, Timrod returned to Charleston in to study law with James L. Petigru. However, as one contemporary put it, T
•
Henry Timrod
American poet (–)
Henry Timrod (December 8, – October 7, ) was an American poet, often called the "Poet of the Confederacy".[1]
Biography
[edit]Early life
[edit]Timrod was born on December 8, , in Charleston, South Carolina, to a family of German descent. His grandfather Heinrich Dimroth emigrated to the United States in and anglicized his name.[2] His father, William Henry Timrod, was an officer in the Seminole Wars and a poet himself. The elder Timrod died from tuberculosis on July 28, , in Charleston,[3] at the age of 44, leaving behind his wife of 25 years, Thyrza Prince Timrod, and their four children, the eldest of which was Adaline Rebecca, 14 years;[3] Henry was nine.[4] A few years later, their home burned down, leaving the family impoverished.[2]
He attended a classical school where he befriended Paul Hamilton Hayne, his lifelong friend and fellow poet who would edit Timrod's work after
•
A Poet Reborn
As a war correspondent beginning in April , Timrod witnessed the Battle of Shiloh. Thereafter, sick and traumatized, he returned to Columbia in June Paul Hayne wrote that his friend “staggered homeward, half-blinded, bewildered, with a dull red mist before his eyes, and a shuddering horror at heart.” Timrod had several hemorrhages. He took his “shattered nerves” to his sister’s house in Columbia. Later that month, Mary Boykin Chesnut reported in her diary that he was well enough to meet Hayne at her cottage on Hampton Street.
In mid, Timrod’s Charleston friends planned an English edition of his poetry if they could get it through the blockade. His poem “Charleston” appeared in December bygd Christmas , the bells of St. Michaels had been sent to Columbia because the church was used in siting the city for bombardment. His poem on the subject, “Christmas,” appeared on Christmas Day During this somber time, Timrod asks in his verses, “How could we bära the mirth,/ While so