An American priest and verse-writer; born at Norfolk, Va., Aug. 15, 1839; died at Louisville, Ky., April 22, 1886. It was while chaplain in the Confederate army that he wrote his well-known poem “The Conquered Banner,” composed shortly after Lee’s surrender. Later he went North for the purpose of lecturing and publishing his works, which have appeared as “The Conquered Banner, and Other Poems” (1880); “Poems, Patriotic, Religious, and Miscellaneous” (1880); and “A Crown for Our Queen.” Other poems of his which are popular are: “The Lost Cause,” “The Sword of Lee,” “The Flag of Erin,” and the epic “Their Story Runneth Thus.” At the time of his death he was engaged upon a “Life of Christ.”
Personal
Father Ryan’s was an open, manly character, in which there was no dissimulation. His generous nature and warm heart were ever moved by kind impulses and influenced by charitable feelings, as became his priestly calling. We may readily believe him when he tells us that he never wrote a line for hate’s sake. He shrank instinctively from all that was mean and sordid. Generosity was a marked trait of his character, an ennobling principle of his nature, the motive power of his actions, and the mainspring of his life. Friendship was likewise congenial to his taste, if not a necessity of his nature; and with him it meant more than a name. It was a sacred union formed between kindred spirits—a chain of affection whose binding link was fidelity. Never was he false to its claims, nor known to have violated its obligations. Hence he was highly esteemed during life by numerous persons of all classes and denominations; for his sympathies were as broad as humanity, and as far-reaching as its wants and its miseries. Yet he was a man of deep conviction and a strict adherent to principle, or what he conceived to be principle; for we find him long after the war still clinging to its memories, and slow to accept its results which he believed were fraught with disaster to the people of his section. A Southerner of the most pronounced kind, he was unwilling to make any concession to his victorious opponents of the North which could be withheld from them.
General
“The Conquered Banner” may fairly take its place at the top of the list of the several exquisite wails that have gone up in verse-utterance from the crushed hearts of a conquered people for a lost cause…. “Sentinel Songs” breathes the same spirit, as does, however, everything that emanates from the same pen. This wants some of the fire of the former, but its truthfulness and earnestness are unmistakable…. All the poems I have seen from Father Ryan’s pen are pitched in the same key…. They all breathe the same spirit, and the same fire flashes through all.
His “Poems,” written “off and on, always in a hurry,” are, in fact, of unequal merit. The author gives a fair estimate of them when he tells us in his Preface that “they are incomplete in finish,” but, as he thinks “true in tone.” Patriotic or religious, they actually mirror the fervid feelings of the Southerner, and the pious aspirations of the priest. They cannot but exert a happy influence on the reader.
Father Ryan’s fame is the inheritance of a great and enlightened nation, and his writings have passed into history to emblazon its pages and enrich the literature of the present and succeeding ages, since it is confidently believed that, with the lapse of time, his fame and his merits will grow brighter and more enduring.
Seldom has a poet been so identified with a cause as this priest-Tyrtæus. In his poem one sees the whole terrible drama, founded on the brave old theme of Cavalier and Roundhead, acted afresh—the grim, old story of high hopes shattered, high blood poured out like water, romance and chivalry subjected to reality. Ryan has created a monument more beautiful and more enduring than marble over the grave of the gallant but ill-fated Gray. The “Conquered Banner,” “Sentinel Songs,” and the lines on his brother, are among the finest war poems in our language.
His poems are the simplest of songs, and their chief quality is that they touch the heart. An atmosphere of melancholy and longing, of weariness and suffering veils their meaning from the gaze of the practical mind. Religious feeling is dominant. The reader seems to be moving about in cathedral glooms, by dimly-lighted altars, with sad processions of ghostly penitents and mourners fading into the darkness to the sad music of lamenting choirs. But the light which falls upon the gloom is the light of heaven, and amid tears and sighs over farewells and crushed happinesses hope sings a vigorous though subdued strain. The religious and melancholy tone of these poems is one reason of their general popularity…. His poems as a whole show rather what he was capable of than any particular excellence…. Father Ryan had greater poetic genius than Lowell; but the art of the latter was masterly, his talents were cultivated to the utmost, and his achievement is so great that comparison is impossible…. To distinguish between his artistic success and his popularity must not be forgotten. The elements of his popularity are not difficult to name. Religious feeling is the first. Devotion to Christ and Mary, His mother, the priest’s awe, wonder, and love for the mass and the sacraments, the enthusiasm of the mystic for the mysteries of religion, are the most fruitful sources of his inspirations. His choice of subjects is mostly personal, peculiar to the priest, the missionary, the patriot, the pilgrim weary of the world, broken in health and spirit, eager for the perfect life…. He speaks from his own heart to the hearts of others. Behind these elements is the true poetic genius upon which his worth and his popularity rest together.
