Author Description

Henry Timrod (1828-1867) was an American poet who is often called The Poet Laureate of the Confederacy. From 1848 to 1853 he submitted a number of poems to The Southern Literary Messenger, under the pen name Aglaus, where he attracted some attention for his abilities. In 1856 he accepted a post as a teacher at the plantation of Col. William Henry Cannon in South Carolina. While teaching he continued to publish his poems in literary magazines. In 1860, he published a small book, which, although a commercial failure, increased his fame. The best known poem from the book was A Vision of Poesy. With the outbreak of war, Henry returned to Charleston, soon publishing his best known poems, Ethnogenesis, A Cry to Arms, Carolina, and Katie which drew many young men to enlist in the service of the Confederacy. He was associate editor of the newspaper, The South Carolinian and later took a post as correspondent for The Carolinian. Timrod's friend and fellow poet, Paul Hamilton Hayne, posthumously edited and published The Poems of Henry Timrod, with many of Timrod's more famous poems in 1873.