ABSTRACT
The Poetry Society of South Carolina, surely the finest organization of its kind then in existence, probably finds itself in the embarrassing position of wondering where the poets have gone whom it is pledged to foster. The poetry of the Old South and of the post-bellum South had the virtues and defects of American poetry in general; it was Romantic, or it was Victorian, with some sporadic excellence but with no concerted and general achievement such as existed in New England. In the South there are Poe and Lanier to set off against Emerson and Whitman; there are minor poets like Timrod, Hayne, Russell, Pinckney, or even the newly discovered Chivers. The South ought to have an artistic tradition to fit its social and historical background. But there is also the social program that underlies and accompanies the program for the encouragement of the arts.
