Title: "An Acrostic on the Pleasures of Beauty," Poem by George M. Horton, [ca. 1835]: Electronic Edition.
Author: Horton, George Moses, 1798?-ca. 1880.
Editor: Erika Lindemann
Funding from the State Library of North Carolina supported the electronic publication of this title.
Text transcribed by Erika Lindemann
Images scanned by Mara E. Dabrishus
Text encoded by Sarah Ficke
First Edition, 2005
Size of electronic edition: ca. 11K
Publisher: The University Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Chapel Hill, North Carolina
2005

No Copyright in US

The electronic edition is a part of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill digital library, Documenting the American South.
Languages used in the text: English
Revision history:
2005-03-15, Sarah Ficke finished TEI/XML encoding.
Part of a series:
This transcribed document is part of a digital collection, titled True and Candid Compositions: The Lives and Writings of Antebellum Students in North Carolina
written by Lindemann, Erika
Source(s):
Title of collection: Pettigrew Family Papers (#592), Southern Historical Collection, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Title of document: "An Acrostic on the Pleasures of Beauty," Poem by George M. Horton, [ca. 1835]
Author: George M. Horton
Description: 1 page, 2 page images
Note: Call number 592 (Southern Historical Collection, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)
Topics covered:
Writing by Non-Students
Social and Moral Issues/Women and Women's Roles
Editorial practices
The text has been encoded using the recommendations for Level 5 of the TEI in Libraries Guidelines.
Originals are in the Southern Historical Collection, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Original grammar, punctuation, and spelling have been preserved.
DocSouth staff created a 600 dpi uncompressed TIFF file for each image. The TIFF images were then saved as JPEG images at 100 dpi for web access.
Page images can be viewed and compared in parallel with the text.
Any hyphens occurring in line breaks have been removed, and the trailing part of a word has been joined to the preceding line.
Letters, words and passages marked as deleted or added in originals have been encoded accordingly.
All quotation marks, em dashes and ampersand have been transcribed as entity references.
All double right and left quotation marks are encoded as ".
All single right and left quotation marks are encoded as '.
All em dashes are encoded as —.
Indentation in lines has not been preserved.

For more information about transcription and other editorial decisions, see Dr. Erika Lindemann's explanation under the section Editorial Practices.

Document Summary

An acrostic on the name Julia Shepard.
"An Acrostic on the Pleasures of Beauty," Poem by George M. Hortonlink opens in a new window , [ca. 1835]1
Horton, George Moses, 1798?-ca. 1880.



Page 1
"An Acrostic on the Pleasures of Beauty"
Joy like the morning breaks from one divine
Unveiling streams which can not fail to shine
Long have I strove to magnify her name
Imperial floating on the breeze of fame—
Attracting beauty must delight afford
Sought of the world and of the Bards adored
Her grace of form and heart alluring pow'rs
Express her more than fair, the queen of flow'rs
Pleasure fond nature's stream from beauty sprang
And was the softest strain the Muses sang
Reverting sorrows into speachless joys
Dispeling gloom which human peace destroys—Beauty.
But Goddess thou the di'mond of the fair
Willt from thy brow repel affection's prayer
And smile to hear the unavailing sigh
With tears disolving from thy suppliant's eye—
But light upon the beau to thee assignd
And leave all els with disregard behind
Then softly bind affection's sacred chain
Never thro life to be broke off again

1 verso page

Endnotes:

1. Pettigrew Family Papers, SHC. Written in Horton'slink opens in a new window hand, the poem is an acrostic on "Julia Shepard," whose name is spelled out by the first letter of each of the poem's first twelve lines. On the verso, Hortonlink opens in a new window wrote "For Mr/Pettigrew." Because both Charles Lockhart Pettigrewlink opens in a new window and William Shepard Pettigrewlink opens in a new window , sons of Ebenezer Pettigrewlink opens in a new window , attended the University in the 1830s, it is unclear who commissioned the poem or precisely when it was written. At the bottom of the poem someone has completed a math problem, subtracting twelve from twenty-seven to get fifteen, then drawing a line under fifteen and writing seven below it.
A second hand has numbered the sheet [11]. This number represents someone's attempt to order the following seven poems, attributed to Hortonlink opens in a new window , in Series 3.7, Folder 568, of the Pettigrew Family Papers: "The Emigrant Girl," "On Ghosts," "An Acrostic (Mr Davenports address to his lady)," "An Acrostic (His lady's reply)," "An Acrostic (To their little daughter)," "The pleasures of a College life," and "An Acrostic on the pleasures of beauty." The first five poems in the series, transcribed by the same hand (but not Horton'slink opens in a new window ) and on the same type of paper, contain the following inscription: "The following was written by George Haughtonlink opens in a new window the negro poet at Chapel Hill, in the year 1836./W. S. Pettigrew." "The pleasures of a College life" is dated 1831.