Talk:James Matthews Legaré

A source

VERY little is known of this kinsman of Hugh S. Legare (y.v.) beyond the facts that he was born in Charleston, November 26, 1823, and that he died in Aiken, South Carolina, March 30, 1859. He seems to have been a lawyer who made no mark in his profession, and an inventor who for one reason or another could not make his discoveries effective. The most certain fact about him is that he loved literature. He contributed to the current magazines, and in 1848 he published a thin volume of verse, "Orta-Undis, and Other Poems," which took its title from the concluding piece in Latin. This little book, although it contains scarcely a single poem that is satisfactory as a whole, and although it shows that Legare had probably felt the influence of Tennyson, gives clear proof that the young poet was a true artist and lover of nature. In careful technique Legare was superior to most if not all of his Southern predecessors save Foe, and he was frequently able to turn a beautiful stanza of description, as well as to inspire his love lyrics with genuine feeling. The best appreciation of his verse is to be found in an article by Ludwig Lewisohn, printed in the Charleston News and Courier for August 1 6, 1903.]

• William Peterfield Trent, Southern Writers: Selections in Prose and Verse (1905) p. 291.

bd2412 T 06:57, 10 September 2008 (UTC)