Donald Davidson - (1893-1968)

Nashville

By Venera Gentry
Austin Peay University at Ft. Campbell, Kentucky

I.  Biography

Donald Davidson is a poet whose creative, artistic, descriptive style gives his poems a unique characteristic that catches the reader's attention and interest. Davidson was born in 1893, in Campbellsville, Tennessee. The most profound influence in his early life was his father, who provided the young son instruction in the classical languages and who read a great deal to his children in the evenings. This way Davidson became impressed with literature. Also his father taught him the pleasures of native music.

Davidson's mother also influenced him.  She was responsible for instilling in Davidson a deep appreciation for classical music.  Being a music teacher by profession, his mother taught him to play the piano. Throughout his life, he became interested in understanding music from the composing point of view and later on he composed one original operetta.

Another source of influence in Davidson's life at home was his father's vast library filled with many classical authors.  Various Tennessean narratives about Indian and pioneer times caught the young boy's interest, as well as plays of Shakespeare or poems by Poe.  His father cautioned him against reading so much of the popular sentimental or European literature and did not believe that children should enter school very young.  Since the young Davidson was a little wonder when he entered school he was placed right in the fifth grade.  Later on, while in school his father was also among his teachers.

One of the most exciting educational adventure came later on when he enrolled in one of the most successful preparatory schools for boys in the South, Branham and Hughes School at Spring Hill, about thirty miles from his home.  While enrolled in this school, his father was offered a new position and moved to Columbia, therefore Davidson commuted by train to school.  For his fourth year at Spring Hill, he stayed with his grandmother and his uncle.

Between 1905 and 1909, Davidson was exposed to vigorous curriculum of classical courses.  He was exposed to four years of Latin, three years of Greek, four of English and mathematics. Since he proved himself to be such a brilliant student, he was chosen to represent the Sam Davis Literary Society in the Commencement Debate with the Henry Grady Literary Society, the school's two literary clubs.  The school paper also encouraged him to make his first attempts at writing poems.

Davidson's practical experience and the love of learning served to convince him of the necessity to continue his studies.  But the lack of financial resources was a real problem at the time, one that was resolved by a fortunate turn of events.  His father moved from Columbia to Bell Buckle to become the principal to a nationally famous high school.  The founder of it soon learned of the younger Davidson's desire but inability to continue his education and offered to recommend him of a loan established at Vanderbilt University.

In 1909, Davidson started his freshman year at Vanderbilt University.  Here Davidson seized every opportunity to satisfy his intellectual thirst and he started reading Kipling, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, and Maupassant.  But the first year was over too quickly and as there were no finances for continuing his education.  Davidson was forced to find a job.  He was seventeen at the time and without hesitation he chose teaching as a profession to which he dedicated most of the rest of his life.  He spent the next few years in small towns hoping to earn enough money to return to Vanderbilt.  He managed to return in 1914, but even though he was richer in terms of maturity and experience, his financial condition was still precarious, which required him to take a job.

During his busy second stay at Vanderbilt University, Davidson made some friends and did some reading that shaped the course of his career.  He had contributed during his stays at Vanderbilt a few essays and poems to the student magazine The Vanderbilt Observer.

 II. Outside Interests and War

Davidson was also part of other pleasant activities such as formal and informal musical sessions at the home of friends and faculty members and visits to Nashville's Vendome Theatre. These pleasures were to be interrupted by a series of aggressions abroad, which finally led to United States declaration of war against Germany on April 6, 1917. At this point, the thoughts of literature and pedagogy were temporarily interrupted and set aside for the sake of making the world a better place.  When war became imminent, Davidson applied for admission to Officers' Training School, was accepted and started the training camp at Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia, in 1917. 

The training in military science proved immediately beneficial and through special provision, his work to substitute for the single course in physics needed for the bachelor's degree, which was obtained in "absencia" in 1917.  In August of that year, he also received his commission as a second lieutenant and helped organize Company E, 324^th Infantry of the 81^st Division forming at Camp Jackson, South Carolina.  But before being sent overseas he married a teacher from Ohio, who he met in 1916. 

In August, his company was sent abroad and assembled in France.  In November, his company fought a severe battle where many lives were lost.  All these war events had a tremendous impact on the mind and soul of young Lieutenant Davidson.  While stationed in France he made new friends, quite different from his academic acquaintances.  His military life was quite different from what he had known as a civilian.  He now had also new responsibilities as a married man.

III.  Literary Works

After the war was over and after his return from France, Davidson started writing poems about his experiences.  While at a "Fugitive" meeting he ventured to read some of them, but they were coldly received.  Later, the only poem that seemed fit to publish was "The Roman Road at Dye" which was published in a revised form in "The Long Street."  Later on, he uses his experiences in "The Tall Man" in a section called "The Faring," one of the few attempts of American poets to write about World War I in verse, which proved to be a most powerful verse narrative about combat during any period of time. 

Davidson returned from Europe at Charleston, Ohio, and soon after that he left his wife and daughter behind.  For the time being, he returned to Nashville, where he was pulled not only for the need to find a job to support his family, but also by the magnet of poetry.  After many disappointments and frustrations he finally found a job in Kentucky.  He returned to Nashville in 1920, where he began regular meetings with the "Fugitive" group.  It was probably here where his development as a poet took place.  In 1920, at no other place the young poet would find so many other talented poets, willing to assist him in perfecting his creations.

In 1922, the first issue of The Fugitive appeared.  During the three and a half years of its existence the magazine carried forty-eight of Davidson's poems, in addition to a brief critical essay and three book reviews. Of the thirty-four poems included in his book, An Outland Piper, twenty-four appeared in The Fugitive, which received the bulk of Davidson's poetic work.  In 1925, the last issue of this magazine appeared.  As he worked all this time on his master's degree he received it finally in 1922.

In 1924, Davidson was promoted to assistant professor of English.  He also worked as literary editor of the Nashville for the Tennessean, a part time position.  From the beginning, he had been an important and indispensable member of the poet-critics who many years later would be proclaimed as inaugurators of the Southern literary renaissance. 

In 1926, Davidson's creativity helped him win the first prize in the South Carolina Poetry Society Contest with "Fire on Belmont Street."  In the same year, an encouraging event took place in the poet's life, the appearance of An Outland Piper.  In 1928, the Anthology of Verse was released and Davidson was represented by nine poems. 

During his life, Davidson worked as a professor at various schools. He was promoted to associate professor in 1929 and professor of English in 1937.  He was also a contributor, collaborator and editor to various works.  He was also the chairman of Tennessee Federation for Constitutional Government.  He finally retired from teaching in 1964, the same year he became professor of English at Vanderbilt.

During his career, Davidson, as a poet and a teacher, was awarded different honorary degrees by various universities.  He was also awarded Doctor of Humane Letters.  After living a fruitful life, filled with dreams and many accomplishments, filled with variety and passion for poetry, he died in April 1968 in Nashville.

Davidson took a break from teaching from 1932-1933, which gave him time to research and read American history.  During the winter of 1932 and through the early spring of 1933, he wrote the essay "Sectionalism in the United States."  Seemingly, the idea of a poem on General Lee had been on his mind for some time. 

In August of 1933, he had completed a draft poem entitled "General Lee Remembers."  He continued with another four versions, the last one written in January of the following year and entitled "Lee in the Mountains." 

The poem covers the period between 1865 and 1870 and tells the story of Lee's life as president of Washington College.  The poem has five parts, all representing Lee's consciousness.  In the first part, as he walks across the campus to his office, he is greeted by a group of students gathered on the steps, awaiting the start of their daily activities. 

The second part begins at the moment Lee enters his office and resumes the work that consumed most of his free time during these years—the revision of his father's memoirs.  In the third part, Lee asks a question to which he probably gave much attention during this crucial part of his life. That question was why was he not concentrating on his own experiences as leader of the Confederate Army, instead of attempting to justify the actions of his father during and after the Revolutionary War. 

Part four of the poem finds Lee reflecting on his present life and states the reasons for his choices.  In the final part of the poem Lee presents the remarks he must give to the students who now look up to him and come to him for inspiration and leadership.  The ringing of a bell, calling him to the college chapel, unfortunately, interrupts his reminiscence. 

This is by far Davidson's best poem. Representing more than mere history, it presents us with the view of a man whose philosophy was to be as useful a mentor and inspiration to his students as he was to his soldiers on the battlefield.  Below are excerpts from "Lee in the Mountains":

Walking into the shadows, walking alone

Where the sun falls through the ruined boughs of locusts,

Up to the president's office.  Hearing the voices

Whisper, "Hush, it is General Lee!"

But the soldiers' faces under the tossing flags

Lift no more by any road or field,

And I am spent with battle and old sorrow.

Walking the rocky path, where the steps decay

And the paint cracks and grass eats on the stones.

It is not General Lee, young men…

It is Robert Lee in a dark civilian suit who walks,

An outlaw fumbling for the latch, a voice

Commanding in a dream where no flag flies.(1)

This essay was submitted by a student of Judith Broadbent, a college teacher in Tennessee and Kentucky.