Charles T. Davis (poet)

Charles Thomas Davis (March 26, 1888 – December 21, 1945) was a poet and journalist from Arkansas. In 1923, the Arkansas General Assembly appointed him the first Poet Laureate of the state.

• One lit a rushlight in the ages gone,
  Bearing it through the night with tireless hand,
  And saw its flicker steady into flame
  Spreading the Light, that men might understand.
  And when it faltered in his failing grasp
  Another took it up and bore it on.
  Today we serve in priesthood on the fire
  Clear and as constant as in years agone.
  Behind our service lies a century...
  • Poem on journalism, for the centennial edition of the Arkansas Gazette (1919), in Ethel C. Simpson, "Charles T. Davis", Encyclopedia of Arkansas (July 30, 2024)

• To ride, shoot straight and speak the truth—
  This was the ancient Law for Youth.
  Old times are past, old days are done;
  But the law runs true—O little son!
  • "To a Real Boy", in Boys' Life, vol. 13, no. 1 (January, 1923), p. 18 (from the Arkansas Gazette)
  • Cf. Lord Byron, Don Juan, canto 16, st. 1:

    The antique Persians taught three useful things,
       To draw the bow, to ride, and speak the truth.
    This was the mode of Cyrus, best of kings—
       A mode adopted since by modern youth.

• Who walks a road with love will never walk
  That road alone again.
  Old lonely things will garb them in the guise
  Of beauty glowing with remembered eyes.
  • Lines, quoted in Harry J. Boyle, Straws in the Wind (1969), p. 126

• Poems (Little Rock, 1923)