Shelby County TN Archives News.....At My Father's Feet 1933 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/tn/tnfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Bill Boggess william-boggess@webtv.net April 16, 2006, 7:29 am Fred W Allsopp's The Poets And Poetry Of Arkansas 1933 (transcribed; 04/09/06)            AT MY FATHER'S FEET by Fanny Green (Borland) MOORES (1848AR-1879TN) I often think when the leaves are brown,       And the noiseless snow comes down, When the world is white and the trees are bare,       And a winter stillness is in the air, Of nights when life in my veins was sweet,       And I sat, a child, at my fathers's feet. He had borne in wars a valiant part,       And he told of battles that shook the heart ---- Fought hand to hand ---- and he showed us a scar,       That brightened the forehead it could not mar; And the whole round world, from wood to street,       Grew round me there, at my father's feet. He had been in distant lands ---- and far ----       From the Southern seas to the polar star ---- He told me of birds on rainbow wings,       Where the crescent moon of the Orient swings, And soft on my brow blew the South wind sweet,       And palms grew tall at my father's feet. He had sailed in ships that night and day       Through mirrored heavens out their way ---- Through waves that dashed at the trembling sky,       And grasped at the moon as they hurried by; And lo! I looked on the white-winged fleet,       And the sea called out from my father's feet. He told me of forests vast ad dim,       With gray-mossed trees like hermits grim; And fierce beasts hid in their treacherous shade,       And reptiles coiled in marshy glade, 'Till tigers lurked in the coal's white heat,       And I clung in fear at my father's feet. Ah! many the winter nights I've seen,       And many the snows that lie between, Since glad from my nurse's arms I came       To sit in the light of the dancing flame, Knowing that Love and I should meet       There on the floor at my father's feet. The hair was white on his honored brow;       Ah me! that brow is the whiter now, And the years are many and thickly sown,       And into a mighty harvest grown; The days are shorter and time more fleet,       Since I saw the world from my father's feet. I have sown my grain. I have sown my tares;       I have sinned my sins and prayed my prayers; I have sown in laughter, and reaped in tears,       I thank thee, Lord,that my harvest nears, When I may pass through my garnered wheat,       To sit, a child, at my father's feet.               <>-------<>-------<> Additional Comments: Fanny was born September 1848, second child to Solon's third wife, following her father's ventures in the Mexican American war, after he was appointed, then elected, Untied States Senator from Arkansas serving until appointed "Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary" to Central America March 1853, turning down Governorship of New Mexico territory. Fanny was named for her father's aunt, Fanny (Green) GODWIN, Suffolk, Virginia, who in part raised her father, Solon BORLAND and her half-brother, Major Harold BORLAND, in their early years. Her brother, George Godwin BORLAND, died June 1862, followed by her mother, Mary Isabel (Melbourne) BORLAND October 1862, then father, Colonel Solon BORLAND, M D, January 1864. Fanny was married 21 April 1869 in the home of Virginia and Oliver C GRAY at Little Rock, to James C MOORES of Memphis. They had one son, George Borland MOORES before she and sister, Mollie, lost their husbands, with some 5,000 others to yellow fever in 1878, she also died a violent death the morning of the 23rd of August 1879 at Memphis. Fanny's poetry, according to Daily Arkansas Gazette, 21 Jan 1872, was published at age 12, which has published several of her pieces over the years gone by. Her most widely published was "The Dead Confederacy" written 1865 in Princeton, Arkansas, published in London's Cosmopolitan, Thursday, 21 December 1871, and other publications. A signed copy is at Special Collections, University of Arkansas. Fanny's work was never collectively printed as a publication, --- except for her; "At My Father's Feet" and "David O Dodd", found in Fred W Allsopp's, 1933 "The Poets and Poetry of Arkansas". The newspapers seemingly printed it. Generals Albert Pike and John M Harrell along with Father Abram P Ryan each spoke highly of her and her work!   We solicit any of her work you would like to share! File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/tn/shelby/newspapers/atmyfath3nw.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.poppet.org/tnfiles/ File size: 5.1 Kb