Historical Footnotes from the Southport Historical Society

from the Wilmington Chronicle:  July 9,1845

(Copied by Kathryn Carson)

SMITHVILLE

by Mrs. M. Martin

 

Village on the ocean shore!

Like a gem upon its wave;

Smithville! where the surges roar,

And the billows gently lave;

Where the ships are skidding by,

And the steamers shooting past,

Where the little shallops lie

In their moorings, snug and fast,

Or go skimmering here and there,

Like to things of light and air.

 

In the Atlantic’s kind embrace,

Nourished by its healthful breeze,

Smithville! sweet and pleasant place;

Shaded by those vines and trees,

Fann’d by that delicious air,

Breathing health and vigor, both,

Smithville!  Ever fresh and fair,

Who to leave thee is not loth?

Not the languid invalid,

Gladly who’d remain, indeed.

I have seen the beauteous North,

And the Old World’s beauty, too,

And their charms have been set forth

As superior, rare and new;

Come to Smithville! - but one whiff

Of her breeze will urge her claim,

Neither arrogant nor stiff,

But what Nature’s self w’d name-

Healthy, lovely, happy, where

Then, beyond her, may compare?

 

Now we take a ramble round

By “The Fortress” through “The Gate”,

With a spring and with a bound,

Bouyant, vigorous, elate;

For the breeze doth bear along-

So, with bounding step we go,

Almost breaking forth in song

By those “cottages in a row”,

By “the church hard by the grove”,

Now, along “the beach” we rove.

Now the vast expanse we view,

To relieve the eye, is seen

Over, canopy of blue

In the midst, one strip of green,

Like an oasis doth greet;

Distant “Fort” - and Lighthouse, far

Shining on serenely sweet

In the night-time, like a star,

Like, poetic, though it be.

Hope upon Life’s fitful sea.

Like, it truly seemed to me

Ray of Hope, unquench’d amid

Storms of Life’s tempestuous sea,

That had ne’er its radiance hid

From the ever anxious eye.

May it emblem forth, also,

That, which, when I come to die,

Shall its light of life bestow-

Smithville!  I’m away from thee

Yet, to better things, may be.

 

Smithville, July 2nd, 1845

 

Orignially published in The Pelican Post August 1996 issue.