Note A CRY TO ARMS — Chapter II
Reading edition
Page 411. A Cry to Arms. The unusual poetic merit of the Southern poems at the opening of the war is worth remarking. This, as the war progressed, gave place in large part to mere hysteria, while the poetic quality of Northern verse, poor enough at first, grew steadily better. This may perhaps be explained by the fact that the South was the more in earnest when the war began, while the earnestness of the North deepened as it went on.