 | |  |
The Unpublished Preface to W. G.
Simms's Collected Poems
by
James E. Kibler
William Gilmore Simms's two-volume collection, Poems Descriptive, Dramatic, Legendary and Contemplative was published simultaneously in Charleston and New York in early January 1854.[1] In its 700 pages of text, it was the most complete anthology of Simms's verse and consisted of the author's own selections from his nearly 2,000 poems in his sixteen earlier books of verse puplished from 1825 to 1850, and the uncollected fugitive pieces from scores of American magazines, journals, and newspapers over a twenty-five year span. Because Poems is one of the worthiest little-known collections of American poetry of its time, the recent discovery of its unpublished preface is a significant event.[2]
The preface is in the poet's hand and at one point, at least, was intended to serve as an introduction to the collection. It is dated from Woodlands, the poet's home on the Edisto River in Barnwell District, South Carolina, and is dated 19 December 1852, at the time Simms was readying the manuscript of volume one of Poems for shipment to his publisher J. S. Redfield in New York. By 25 January 1853, he was reporting that he had sent the entirety of volume one on a steamer to that city.[3] By October 1853, Simms was expecting the two-volume edition to issue from the press, but it did not appear until early the next year.[4]
When the volumes did appear, the preface was absent. There is no evidence as to why. The extant preface is heavily revised with interlinings, and probably represents a preliminary draft of a recopied version sent to Redfield, if indeed Simms did send it. It is impossible to say whether it was Simms or his editor who deleted it from the published work.
In either case, the preface provides valuable information about the special care the poet took in selecting, revising, and polishing his poems, and thus
The content and spirit of the preface accord well with Simms's statement of 14 January 1852 that he wished "to revise and make myself as worthy as possible in the eyes of future criticism."[5] The concern over his text that he expressed in his preface was commensurate with his declaration to Evert Duyckinck on 24 November 1853, that "my poetical works exhibit the highest phase of the Imaginative faculty which this country has yet exhibited, and the most philosophical in connection with it. This sounds to you very egotistical, perhaps, but I am now 47 years old, and do not fear to say to a friend what I think of my own labor. The vulgar taste for poetry which requires little more at any time than lucid and liquid commonplaces, I do not contemplate at all, and my desire is rather to put myself on record for future judgment than to become a temporary cry for the hurrying mob."[6] Of popular contemporary poetry in America, Simms wrote that "Your song must be such as one can read running, and comprehend while munching pea-nuts."[7] For Simms, poetry was patently not as "commonly thought to be the mere purpose of the idle hour, a soothing pastime for writer and reader"[8] or "elegant trifles" written from an "occasional dalliance" with the Muse.[9] To Duyckinck again, he criticized modern American poetry, "the merits of which lie upon the surface."[10] Simms summarized his credo by saying that "all the great authors . . . were all professional authors, — surrendering life to this one object. Nothing that we know, has ever come from amateur authorship, but dilletantism, affectation, pretence."[11]
These statements and the reinforcing words of the preface reveal Simms's professionalism and high seriousness. It is important that after nearly a century and a half, his preface finally be published as an aid to our understanding that as a poet, Simms was a careful and meticulous craftsman and a man of proper, serious, and honorable intent. His preface gives us further indication of the reasons why he was indeed "a good poet, versatile, accessible, learned, and passionate in feeling" with an ease of technique that makes his verse "inviting" to the modern reader.[12]
Here follows Simms's preface, printed for the first time, in its entirety
Advertisement.
-------
These volumes [next three words interlined above cancelled form a selection] are drawn from from the various [collections of cancelled; volumes interlined and cancelled; next two words interlined] collections of verse which I have [next word interlined above cancelled written] printed. As the greater number of these were printed rather for private distribution — than for sale — printed, in fact, without being published — they are not now to be had; and frequent applications for them, have persuaded my publisher to believe that a complete edition, in a compact form, of all those poems which I am willing to leave on record [next two words interlined with caret] in connection with my name, will be acceptable to the public. In preparing this collection I have endeavoured to repair the defects [expressive cancelled; of an interlined with caret and cancelled] of [next word interlined above cancelled carelessness] heedlessness & haste in the previous volumes. A voluminous writer is apt to be [next word interlined above cancelled reckless] careless of his costume, [the cancelled; a careless interlined with caret and cancelled; next four words interlined] and to send forth his thoughts with a [next two words interlined above cancelled degree of] certain unwise recklessness which is characteristic of the temperament, rather than the mind. It is a fault perhaps inseparable from voluminousness; [next word interlined above cancelled and] though usually supposed to be more than atoned for, by a [next word interlined with caret] corresponding [interlined posses cancelled] degree of force and earnestness, the very possession of which makes the writer regardless of much nicety of finish & detail. In the collection which follows I have sought to repair some of these faults of taste & temperament, and have [next two words interlined with caret] made my selection of contents carefully from my metrical writings, of such as I deem the best. Some of the smaller pieces are reclaimed fugitives, who having become favourites, while unknown, and brought credit to their owner, may now properly be made to wear his badge.
Woodlands, S. C. Decr. 19, 1852
Notes
Despite its 1854 publication, the volume's title page bears the date 1853. For a descriptive bibliography and publication history of Poems Descriptive, Dramatic, Legendary and Contemplative, see James E. Kibler, The Poetry of William Gilmore Simms: An Introduction and Bibliography (Columbia, S. C.: Southern Studies Program, 1979), 90 — 97.
The single sheet is among loose papers in the extensive Simms Collection of the South Caroliniana Library, University of South Carolina, Manuscripts item P 1540.
Letter of Simms to Henry Panton, 25 January 1853, in The Letters of William Gilmore Simms, ed. Mary C. Simms Oliphant, et al. (University of South Carolina Press, 1952 — 82), III, 224.
Simms, "Poe's Poetry," Charleston, S. C. Southern Patriot (10 November 1845) and reprinted in Simms Review, I, no. 2 (Winter 1993), 20 — 25. Here Simms defends Poe against his Boston critics.
Simms, "The Writings of Washington Allston," Southern Quarterly Review, IV (October 1843), 381, 390.
As described by contemporary poet and novelist Fred Chappell, writing of Simms for the University of Georgia Press Selected Poems of William Gilmore Simms (1990).
| | |