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Poet, Musician and Man 101 |
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Filled with delightful homely similes was his "Nelly Bly," as in this verse:
Nelly Bly hab a voice like de turtle dove,
I hears it in de meadow and I hears it in de grove.
Nelly Bly hab a heart warm as cup ob tea,
And bigger dan de sweet potato down in Tennessee.
With the same poetic as well as musical power, Stephen was later to stir the feelings of singers and hearers of "My Old Kentucky Home;' "Old Folks at Home,5 and "Old Black Joe," "Jeanie With the Light Brown Hair," and "Come Where My Love Lies Dreaming."
The verses and music Stephen produced during his Cincinnati residence and in the ensuing productive years were creditably free from mawkish sentimentality. It is a melancholy fact that later he fell from poetical and musical grace; some of his Civil War songs are sad for reasons other than their author intended. Happily, in one of his final songs, he recaptured the first careless rapture. The music of "Beautiful Dreamer" is lovely and the music is matched by the words.
3-As to the sources of Stephen's melodies, there have been a few charges of plagiarism which analysis has proved to be mistaken. Henry Watterson, the Louisville editor, maintained in his book Morse Henry that "the melody of 'Old Folks at Home' may be found |
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