I’m her slave if she cottons to me.rnBut this cursed sobriety everrnUndoes every chain of delight.rnAnd my memory, by daylight,rnhas neverrnAny sense of what takes placernby night.rnIf I did not know better, I should declarernthis poem the source of the popularrnsong, “I went to bed at two with arnten and woke up at ten with a two.”rnI’he one undoubted masterpiece ofrnsatire included by Kibler is Simms’ poemrn”Chilhowee” (in two different versions).rnSimms answers a friend who hadrnidealized the life of the noble savagesrnin the village before them by paintingrna squalid picture of Indian life, a drunkenrnspree leading to an ill-advised attackrnon a squatter’s farm and the loss of theirrnproperty. But in his conclusion, the poetrn—who in other places wrote far morernsympathetically of the Indians he hadrnknown—turns the table on the goodrnprogressive American democrats:rnFive years hence.rnAnd the foul settlement we gazernon nowrnwill be a village of the paler race,rnhaving its thousand souls.rnChurches will rise,rnWith taverns on each hand. Tornthe right, seernThat gloomy house of moralsrncalled a jail;rnAnd from the town hall, on thernopposite square.rnYou yet shall hear somernuncomb’d oratorrnDiscourse of freedom, politics,rnand law.rnIn tones shall make your bloodrnboil, and your hairrnStart up in bristles. It may bernyour fortunernl b hear his comment on yourrnfavorite themes,rn”Nature and Freedom”; whilernyour eyes discernrn”Fat Terrapin,” “Grey Weasel,”rnand perchance.rnThe aged “Blazing Pine,”—allrnChristians then,—rnCowering bewildered, ‘mongstrnthe clamorous crowdrnWhich hangs delighted on thernorator’s words—rnHeedful, delightful, drunk asrnany there!rnWhatever alienation Simms might havernfelt, he kept to himself, and his poetry isrnfilled with tributes both to Charlestonrnand to the South. On excellent termsrnwith many northern writers, Simms hadrnno use for the north’s political leaders.rnAs early as 1850 he had taken their mea-rnHc proffers love, he prates of tiesrnThat still should bind our fatesrnin one.rnYet weaves his subtle web of lies.rnTo sliare and leave us all undone.rnSimms, who was present when Shermanrntorched Columbia, missed seeing hisrnown house burned to the ground byrnYankee troops, but the war was more fatalrnto his literary career than to his fortunes.rnNorthern publishers reneged onrntheir contracts, and the doors remainedrnclosed in the years between the war andrnhis death in 1870; for a hundred yearsrnhis works have been effectively excludedrnfrom the nation’s literary canon. ThernLibrary of American Literature, with allrnits faults the most constructive projectrnof the contemporary American publishingrnbusiness, has brought back into printrneven Jack London’s investigative reportingrnon the London slums but hasrnso far managed to ignore one of ourrndominant literary voices of the last century.rnCuilds, Kibler, James Meriwether,rnand other Southern literary historians,rnhowever, are doing their best to undornthe effects of “long years of neglect.”rnLIBERAL ARTSrnNO LAUGHING MATTERrnAsked by a joking Spy magazine what the United States sliould do to stop what’s going on in Frcedoiiia, House freshmen offered suclirnresponses as “I just think we need to take action to assist die people” and “It’s a different situation tiian the Middle East.” Not onernof the approximately 20 first-term congressmen interviewed by Spy got the joke: “Frccdonia” doesn’t exist; it’s the fictitious nationrnfrom the Marx Brothers’ 1933 movie Duck Soup.rnAccording to the New York Times last January, Spy’s staff posed as the host of a New York radio talk show to ask the freshmen questionsrnlike “Do you approve of what we’re doing to stop what’s going on in Freedonia?” and “Do von approve of what we’re doing to stoprnethnic cleansing in Freedonia?” Apparently thinking the interviewer was referring to events in Bosnia, respondents were generally lessrncandid about their ignorance of the subject than Representative Jay Inslee of Washington, who replied: “I have to be honest with you,rnI’m not familiar with that proposal. But it’s coming to the point now that a blind eye to it for the next ten years is not the answer.”rnAPRIL 1993/27rnrnrn