James Ryder Randall

James Ryder Randall Poems

James Ryder Randall Biography

James Ryder Randall (January 1, 1839 – January 15, 1908) was an American journalist and poet. Randall was born on January 1, 1839 in Baltimore, Maryland. He is most remembered for writing the poem "Maryland, My Maryland," which is also the reason for his being called the "Poet Laureate of the Lost Cause". It became a war hymn of the Confederacy after the poem's words were set to music during the Civil War by Jennie Cary, a member of a prominent Maryland and Virginia family. It later became the state song of Maryland. Randall wrote the poem after learning that his friend Francis X. Ward, of Randallstown, Maryland, was killed by the Sixth Massachusetts Regiment in the Baltimore Riot of April 19, 1861.[1] The work was first published a week later on April 26, in the New Orleans newspaper The Sunday Delta. After abandoning his studies at Georgetown University, he traveled to South America and the West Indies. Upon his return to the United States he taught English literature at Poydras College in Pointe Coupee Parish, Louisiana. It was during this time that he penned "Maryland, My Maryland". After the Civil War, Randall became a newspaper editor and a correspondent in Washington, D.C., for The Augusta Chronicle. He continued to write poems, although none achieved the popularity of "Maryland, My Maryland". His later poems were deeply religious in nature. He died on January 15, 1908 in Augusta, Georgia.)

The Best Poem Of James Ryder Randall

Maryland! My Maryland!

Thou wilt not cower in the dust,
Maryland! my Maryland!
Thy beaming sword shall never rust,
Maryland! my Maryland!
Remember Carroll s sacred trust.
Remember Howard s warlike thrust,
And all thy slumb’rers with the just,
Maryland! My Maryland!

Thou wilt not yield the Vandal toll,
Maryland! my Maryland
Thou wilt not crook to his control,
Maryland! my Maryland!
Better the fire upon thee roll,
Better the shot, the blade, the bowl,
Than crucifixion of the soul,
Maryland! my Maryland!

I see no blush upon thy cheek,
Maryland! my Maryland!

James Ryder Randall Comments