The Blood Book

Henry Timrod (1828-1867), was a Charleston native known as the poet laureate of the Confederacy. He was a school teacher whose poems were published and well-regarded. Bob Dylan has actually referenced Timrod’s poems in song lyrics.

[ Bust of Henry Timrod ]

Charleston was the epicenter of Confederate thought prior to the Civil War, and it was in the Holy City that the Declaration of Secession was signed in 1860. Timrod fervently supported the Confederate war effort, publishing war poems which helped stir up impressionable young men to enlist for battle.

The first shots of the war were fired at Fort Sumter in 1861, and Timrod enlisted as a soldier in 1862. His commanding officers quickly realized that he was not fit for duty, as a horrendous case of tuberculosis was causing him to cough up bloody ooze.

Five years later, dying from consumption, he penned what would turn out to be his final poem - or at least part of it. Lungs full of bacteria and blood, he was able to write the following as he gave up the ghost:

“Two lillies on a broken stalk

Two willows down a lonely walk

Two stars when languishing away

As night is trembling into day

Such are ye dear ones in your sorrow

And the gloom which clouds your morrow

May find it’s lyfe in all that we

Behold in brief mortality.”

Folk legend holds that after writing those cryptic words, Timrod spewed forth his final breath. During this death-cough, the vile liquid from his lungs splattered right onto the page, his lifeless body dropping to the floor. Timrod had signed his own poem with a seal of blood, disease, and sorrow.

The Library Society of Charleston puts this document on display every October - they called it The Blood Book.

[ The Blood Book of Henry Timrod ]

Timrod is now immortalized in Washington Square Park with a beautiful (and disturbing) statue. Although he died in Columbia, folk legend maintains that he haunts Washington Square Park, as Charleston was always his first love.

Locals say it is not uncommon to hear aggressive, wet coughing in the park when there is no one around.

Visit and learn about haunted sites like this by booking a tour with us!

Sources:

Pettigrew, Virginia Clare. “Harp of the South.” ‎ Oglethorpe University Press, 1936

Jacobs, Clifford. “Stoop, angels, hither from the skies! It's blood book time.” Charleston Library Society.

Polito, Robert. “Bob Dylan: Henry Timrod Revisited.” Poetry Foundation.

“Henry Timrod.” Wikipedia.