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Select Poems of Sidney Lanier [Sidney Lanier: American (Georgia) Poet,best remote control helicopters for 6 year olds under 100 dollars Musician, etc.; 1842-1881.] [Note on text: Italicized words are capitalised.Lines longer than 78 characters are broken and the continuationis indented two spaces. Some obvious errors may have been corrected.The "Notes" section has been abolished, and the notes themselvesappear with the poems, instead of in a separate section.] Select Poems of Sidney Lanier Edited With an Introduction, Notes, and Bibliography [Amended to include "The Marshes of Glynn"] To My Father Preface This edition of the `Select Poems of Sidney Lanier' is issuedin the hope of making his poetry known to wider circles than hitherto,especially among the students of our high-schools and colleges.To these as to older people, the poems will, it is believed,prove an inspiration from the stand-point both of literature and of life. The biographical section of the Introduction rests in the mainupon Dr. Ward's admirable `Memorial' prefixed to the `Poems of Sidney Lanier'edited by his wife, though a few additional facts have been gleanedhere and there. For most* of the Bibliography down to 1888 I am indebtedto my Hopkins comrade, Dr. Richard E. Burton, now of Hartford, Conn.,who compiled one for the `Memorial of Sidney Lanier',published by President Gilman, of the Johns Hopkins University, in 1888.Obligations to other publications about Lanier are in every instanceacknowledged in the appropriate place. —* I say `most of the Bibliography down to 1888', because Dr. Burton's different purpose led him to exclude items that could not be omitted in a Bibliography that, like mine, tries to be complete.— As to the selections made, I wished to include `The Marshes of Glynn'and yet not to exclude `Sunrise'. But both could not be put in,and I finally gave the preference to `Sunrise', chiefly on the groundof its being Lanier's latest complete poem.* I believe all will admitthat the poems selected fairly exemplify the genius of the poet.The poems are arranged, not as in the complete edition,but in their chronological order, the only proper one, I think,for a text-book. Of course, they are all given complete. — In the Notes I have made rather copious quotations from poemsfamiliar to English scholars, because I hope that this bookwill go into the hands of many to whom they are not familiar,and to whom the original texts are not easily accessible.And yet, if they at all attain their end, the Notes must lead oneto wish to know more of English poetry, of which Lanier's is but a part. Among the friends that have helped me by counsel or otherwiseI gratefully name Mr. Clifford Lanier, brother of the poet;Professor Wm. Hand Browne, of the Johns Hopkins University;Dr. Charles H. Ross, of the Alabama Polytechnic Institute;and my colleagues in the School of English in the University of Texas,Mr. L. R. Hamberlin and Professor Leslie Waggener.Chief-justice Logan E. Bleckley, of Georgia, a man of lettersas well as of law, very kindly put at my use his correspondence with the poet,the original draft of `Corn', and his criticisms upon the same.My chief indebtedness, however, is to Mrs. Sidney Lanier,who has been most generous with her time and her husband's papers. Morgan Callaway, Jr. University of Texas, October 1, 1894. Contents Introduction Poems Bibliography Select Poems of Sidney Lanier Introduction I. A Brief Sketch of Lanier's Life (1842-1881) Sidney Lanier has so recently passed from us that it seems desirablebriefly to recount the chief incidents of his life. This taskis much lightened by Dr. Wm. Hayes Ward's `Memorial',* upon which,as stated in the Preface, is based this section of my essay.Born at Macon, Ga., February 3, 1842, Sidney Lanier came of a familynoted for their love and cultivation of the fine arts.From the time of Queen Elizabeth to the Restoration,several of his paternal ancestors were connected with the English courtas musical composers and as painters. The father of the poet, however,Robert S. Lanier, was a most industrious lawyer, who,after a lingering illness of three years, recently** answered `Adsum'to the summons of the supreme tribunal. The poet's mother, Mary Anderson,a Virginian of Scotch descent, likewise sprang from a familydistinguished for their love of oratory, music, and poetry. — With such an ancestry we are not surprised to learn thatSidney's earliest passion was for music, and that in boyhood he could,although untutored, play on almost every kind of instrument. He preferredthe violin, in playing which he sometimes sank into a deep trance,but in deference to his father's view gave it up for the flute,his power over which we shall hear of farther on. At first,strange to say, he considered music unworthy of one's sole attention,but later he came to rank it as his fullest expression of worship. At fourteen Sidney entered the Sophomore Class of Oglethorpe College,near Macon, Ga., and, with a year's intermission, graduated with first honorin 1860, when just eighteen. To Professor James Woodrow, of Oglethorpe,now President of South Carolina College, Lanier declaredthat he owed "the strongest and most valuable stimulus of his youth."On graduating he was given a tutorship in his Alma Mater,a position that he held until the outbreak of the Civil War. The lecture-room was now exchanged for the battle-field;in April, 1861, Lanier entered the Confederate Army as a privatein the Macon Volunteers of the Second Georgia Battalion,an organization among the first to reach Norfolk and that still keeps upits corporate existence. In the spring of 1862 Lanier was joinedby his young brother, Clifford; and throughout the wareach seemed to vie with the other in brotherly love;for, while both were offered promotion, neither would accept it,since to do so would have entailed separation from the other.The leisure time of his first year's service Sidney spentin the study of music and the modern languages. He was engagedin several battles in Virginia, but afterward was transferred,with Clifford, to the Signal Service, with head-quarters at Petersburg.Here he had access to a small library, of which he made sedulous use.In 1863 his company was mounted, and served in Virginia and North Carolina.In the spring of 1864 both brothers were transferred to Wilmington,the head-quarters of the Marine Signal Service, in which they remainedto the end of the war. Finally the two brothers were separated,each becoming signal officer* of a blockade-runner. Sidney's vesselwas captured, and for five months he was a prisoner at Point Lookout, Md.,with nothing but his flute to solace him. It was the exposure of prison-life,no doubt, that first led to decline of health by developingthe seeds of consumption, a disease that was to carry off his motherand that he was to struggle with the last fifteen years of his life.Released from prison in February, 1865, he returned to Georgia,for the most part afoot, and reached home March 15th.An account of his war-life is given in his novel, `Tiger-lilies',treated below. —* It is sometimes erroneously stated that each was put in charge of a blockade-runner.— During the succeeding nine years (1865-73) his life was checkered indeed.Seriously ill for six weeks, he arose from his bed to seehis mother carried off by consumption and to find himself sufferingwith congestion of the lungs. Slightly relieved, Lanier turned his handto various projects for making a living: clerking in a hotelin Montgomery, Ala., for two years; writing* and publishing his novel,`Tiger-lilies'; teaching at Prattville, Ala., one year, during which time**he married Miss Mary Day, of Macon, Ga.; studying and then practising lawwith his father at Macon, Ga., for five years; now, in the winter of 1872-73,trying to recuperate at San Antonio, Texas, for hemorrhages had begun in 1868,and a cough had set in two years later; and, finally, settling in Baltimore,December, 1873, to devote himself to music and literature. — Against the son's devotion of his life to music and literaturethe father protested, chiefly on business grounds, and begged himto rejoin himself in the practice of the law. Thanking his fatherfor his thoughtfulness, Lanier justified his own coursein these earnest words: "My dear father, think how, for twenty years,through poverty, through pain, through weariness, through sickness,through the uncongenial atmosphere of a farcical collegeand of a bare army and then of an exacting business life,through all the discouragement of being wholly unacquaintedwith literary people and literary ways — I say, think how,in spite of all these depressing circumstances and of a thousand morewhich I could enumerate, these two figures of music and poetryhave steadily kept in my heart so that I could not banish them.Does it not seem to you as to me, that I begin to have the rightto enroll myself among the devotees of these two sublime arts,after having followed them so long and so humbly, and throughso much bitterness?"*1* Of course, the father yielded and did allthat his slender means would allow toward keeping up his son,who henceforth devoted every energy to music and literature.Despite continued ill-health, which now and again necessitatedvisits of months' duration to Florida, North Carolina, and Virginia,Lanier did a vast amount of work. He was engaged as first flutefor the Peabody Symphony Concerts, a position that he filledwith rare distinction for six years. As to his literary work,this began with the publication of his novel, `Tiger-lilies', in 1867,and in the same year, of occasional poems in `The Round Table' of New York.`Corn', published in `Lippincott's Magazine' (Philadelphia)for February, 1875, is the first of his poems that attracted general notice,and the one that gained him the friendship of Bayard Taylor.To Taylor he owed his selection to write the `Centennial Cantata',which gave him still greater notoriety, though, to be sure,some of it was not very grateful to him. In 1876 the Lippincotts publishedhis `Florida', and in 1877 his first volume of `Poems',which contained ninety-four pages and consisted chiefly of pieces*2*previously published in the magazines. Soon after settling in Baltimore,Lanier made a careful study of Old and Middle English, the fruits of whichhe partially embodied in courses of lectures given to his private classand to the public, the latter at the Peabody Institute, in 1879.During these years, too, he had been steadily turning out poems of high order.On his birthday, February 3, in 1879, he received notice of his appointmentas Lecturer on English Literature at the Johns Hopkins University of Baltimorefor the ensuing scholastic year, with a fixed salary, the first sincehis marriage. In the summer of 1879 he wrote his `Science of English Verse',which constituted the basis of his first course of lecturesat the Johns Hopkins University. Notwithstanding serious illness,this same winter, 1879-80, he lectured at three private schoolsand kept up his musical engagement at the Peabody Concerts.The next winter, 1880-81, he came near dying, but still kept writing(`Sunrise' was written with a fever temperature of 104 Degrees)and went through his twelve lectures at the Hopkins, afterwards embodiedin `The English Novel'. How trying this must have been to himcan be gathered from the following words of Mr. Ward:"A few of the earlier lectures he penned himself; the rest he was obligedto dictate to his wife. With the utmost care of himself,going in a closed carriage and sitting during his lecture,his strength was so exhausted that the struggle for breathin the carriage on his return seemed each time to threaten the end.Those who heard him listened in a sort of fascinated terror, as in doubtwhether the hoarded breath would suffice to the end of the hour."*3*After this a trip was made to New York to arrange for issuing some booksfor boys, and four were issued, two posthumously: `Boy's Froissart' (1878),`Boy's King Arthur' (1880), `Boy's Mabinogion' (1881),and `Boy's Percy' (1882). Another work, an account of North Carolinasimilar to that of Florida, was contracted for and was definitely planned,but, owing to aggravating infirmities, could not be completed. —*1* Ward's `Memorial', p. xx. f.*2* They are named in the `Bibliography'.*3* Ward's `Memorial', p. xxviii.— For the end was near at hand. Desperate illness had made it necessaryto seek relief near Asheville, N.C., where he was joinedby Mrs. Lanier and by his father and step-mother. Growing no better,he was moved to Lynn, Polk County, N.C. Of the rest we shall hearin the words of his wife: "We are left alone (it is August 29, 1881)with one another. On the last night of the summer comes a change.His love and immortal will hold off the destroyer of our summeryet one more week, until the forenoon of September 7th, and then fallsthe frost, and that unfaltering will renders its supreme submission tothe will of God."* Unusually checkered his life had been, and yet for Lanieras for Timrod poetry (and music) had "turned life's tasteless watersinto wine, and flushed them through and through with purple tints."**The body was taken to Mr. Lanier's home in Baltimore, thence tothe Church of St. Michael and All Angels, where services were conductedby the rector, the Rev. Dr. William Kirkus. It was then buriedin Greenmount Cemetery, in the lot of Mr. and Mrs. Lawrence Turnbull,two of the dearest friends that Mr. and Mrs. Lanier had in Baltimore. — Mr. Lanier left a family consisting of his wife and four sons.Mrs. Lanier, who lives at Tryon, N.C., was the inspirationnot only of those glorious tributes, `Laus Mariae' and `My Springs',but also of the poet's whole life. The eldest son, Mr. Charles Day Lanier,was born at Macon, Ga., September 12, 1868, and was graduated A.B.at the Johns Hopkins University in 1888. At one time he wasAssistant Editor of `The Cosmopolitan Magazine', a position that he gave uponly to become Business Manager of `The Review of Reviews',with which he has been connected from its beginning.He is the author of several graceful sketches in the magazines.The second son, Sidney, is passionately fond of music,and would have devoted himself thereto but for life-long ill-health.After teaching three years in West Virginia, he has started a fruit farmat Tryon, N.C., where he hopes to build up his health.The third son, Henry Wysham, was prevented from entering the Johns Hopkinsby a partial failure of sight, and for three years has devoted himselfto railroad engineering in Baltimore and in Jamaica. The youngest,Robert Sampson, only fourteen, is at Tryon, N.C., with his mother. That interest in Lanier's life and work did not cease with his death,there is abundant evidence. On October 22, 1881, a memorial meeting was heldby the Faculty and students of the Johns Hopkins University, at whichaddresses*1* were made by President Gilman and Professor Wm. Hand Browne,of the University, and by the Rev. Dr. William Kirkus, of Baltimore,and a letter*1* was read from the poet-critic, Edmund C. Stedman,of New York. In 1883 `The English Novel' was published,and in 1884 the `Poems', edited by his wife, with the excellent `Memorial'by Dr. Wm. Hayes Ward, who declared that he thought Lanierwould "take his final rank with the first princes of American song."*2*Numerous reviews of his life and works were published, notably thoseby Mr. Wm. R. Thayer, Dr. Merrill E. Gates, Professor Charles W. Kent,and by the London `Spectator'. On February 3, 1888,the Johns Hopkins University held another memorial meeting in Baltimore,attended by many from other cities. "A bust of the poet, in bronze(modelled by Ephraim Keyser, sculptor, in the last period of Lanier's life,at the suggestion of Mr. J. R. Tait), was presented to the Universityby his kinsman, Charles Lanier, Esq., of New York. It was also announced thata citizen of Baltimore had offered a pedestal, to be cut in Georgia marblefrom a design by Mr. J. B. N. Wyatt. On a temporary pedestalhung the flute of Lanier, which had so often been his solace,and a roll of his manuscript music. The bust was crownedwith a wreath of laurel; the words of Lanier, `The Time needs Heart',were woven into the strings of a floral lyre; and other flowers,likewise brought by personal friends, were grouped around the pedestal.As a memento a card, designed by Mrs. Henry Whitman, of Boston,was given to those who were present. Upon its face was a wreath,with Lanier's name and the date, and the motto — `Aspiro dum Exspiro';upon the reverse appeared the closing lines of the Hymn of the Sun,taken from the poet's `Hymns of the Marshes' — and beneath,a flute with ivy twined about it."*3* The exercises,which were interspersed with music, were as follows:addresses by President Gilman of the Hopkins and President Gates of Rutgers(now of Amherst); selections from Lanier's poetry, read byMiss Susan Hayes Ward, of Newark, N.J.; a paper on Lanier's`Science of English Verse', by Professor A. H. Tolman, of Ripon College, Wis.(now of the University of Chicago); poetic tributes by Mrs. Lawrence Turnbull,Miss Edith M. Thomas, and Messrs. James Cummings, Richard E. Burton,and John B. Tabb; and letters from Messrs. Richard W. Gilder,Edmund C. Stedman, and James Russell Lowell — all of which may be foundin President Gilman's dainty `Memorial of Sidney Lanier'. Again,a replica of the above-mentioned bust, the gift also of Mr. Charles Lanier,was unveiled at the poet's birthplace, Macon, Ga., on October 17, 1890;on which occasion tender tributes*4* were again poured forthin prose and verse, by Messrs. W. B. Hill, Hugh V. Washington,Charles Lanier, Clifford Lanier, Wm. Hand Browne, Charles G. D. Roberts,John B. Tabb, H. S. Edwards, Wm. H. Hayne, Charles W. Hubner,Joel Chandler Harris, Charles Dudley Warner, and Daniel C. Gilman.But more significant than these demonstrations, perhaps,is the steadily growing study devoted to Lanier's works.Mr. Higginson*5* tells us, for instance, that, when he wrote his tributein 1887, Lanier's `Science of English Verse' had been putupon the list of Harvard books to be kept only a fortnight,and that, according to the librarian, it was out "literally all the time."Moreover, it would not be difficult to cite various poemsthat have been more or less modeled upon Lanier's; it is sufficient, perhaps,to point out that the marsh, a theme almost unknown to poetry before Lanierimmortalized it, is not infrequently the subject of poetic treatment now,as in the works of Charles G. D. Roberts,*6* Clinton Scollard,*7*and Maurice Thompson.*8* It is noteworthy, too, that many ofthe younger poets of the day, both in Canada and the United States,have sung Lanier's praise. A complete list is given in the `Bibliography'.Still further, a devoted admirer, Mrs. Lawrence Turnbull, of Baltimore,in `The Catholic Man', has in the person of Paul, the poet,given us an imaginative study of the character of Mr. Lanier.Finally, only a few months ago the Chautauquans of the class of 1898determined to call themselves "The Laniers", in honor ofthe poet and his brother. —*1* See the `Bibliography'.*2* `Memorial', p. xi.*3* Gilman's `A Memorial of Sidney Lanier', pp. 5-6.*4* Published in `The Atlanta (Ga.) Constitution' of October 19, 1890.*5* See `The Chautauquan', as cited in the `Bibliography'.*6* See recent files of `The Independent' (New York).*7* See his `Pictures in Song' (New York, 1884), pp. 45-49.*8* See his `Songs of Fair Weather' (Boston, 1883), pp. 27-28.— II. Lanier's Prose Works With this brief sketch of his life, let us turn to Lanier's works,and first to those in prose. At the head of the list comes `Tiger-lilies',a novel written within three weeks and published immediately thereafter,in 1867. Under the figure of "a strange, enormous, terrible flower,"the seed of which he hopes may perish beyond resurrection, the author picturesthe horror of war in general and of the Civil War in particular.An entertaining love-story runs through the book, the plot of whichspace does not allow me to detail. In execution the novel has grave defects:it lacks unity; the characters talk as learnedly as Lanier afterwardwrote of music; and at times, as in the oft-quoted picture of the war,*1*the style is grandiloquent; owing to which blemishes the authorwisely discouraged its republication. But, in spite of these defects,the book has one very strongly put scene,*2* the interviewbetween Smallin and his deserter brother, and several beautiful passages*3*that distinctly proclaim the high-souled poet. —*1* `Tiger-lilies', p. 115 ff.*2* `Tiger-lilies', p. 149 ff.*3* That on "love" (p. 26) is quoted later.— Lanier's next publication, `Florida: Its Scenery, Climate, and History',was written by commission of the Atlantic Coast Line, and appeared in 1876.To use the author's own epithet, `Florida' is "a spiritualized guide-book". Exclusive of the 1877 volume of `Poems', Lanier's next original workwas `The Science of English Verse', which in lecture-formwas delivered to the students of the Johns Hopkins in the winter of 1879and was published in 1880. According to competent critics, the book givesas searching an investigation of the science of verse on its formal sideas is to be had in any language. Since the treatise is so evidentlyan epoch-making one, I regret that the technicality of the subject forbidsmy attempting in this connection even a brief exposition* of its principles.I can say only that Lanier treats verse in the terms of music;that, according to the promise of the preface, he gives"an account of the true relations of music and verse"; and that in so doinghe has given us the best working theory for English versefrom Caedmon to Tennyson. This is a high estimate, but it is by no meansso high as that of the lamented poet-professor, Edmund Rowland Sill,who said of `The Science of English Verse', "It is the only workthat has ever made any approach to a rational view of the subject.Nor are the standard ones overlooked in making this assertion." **—* This may be found in Professor Tolman's article, cited in the `Bibliography'.** Quoted by Tolman.— Lanier's second course of lectures at the Johns Hopkins University,delivered in the winter and spring of 1881, was published in 1883under the title, `The English Novel and the Principles of Its Development'.*According to the author's statement, the purpose of the bookis "first, to inquire what is the special relation of the novelto the modern man, by virtue of which it has become a paramount literary form;and, secondly, to illustrate this abstract inquiry, when completed,by some concrete readings in the greatest of modern English novelists" (p. 4).Addressing himself to the former, Lanier attempts to prove (1) that our time,when compared with that of Aeschylus, shows an "enormous growthin the personality of man" (p. 5); (2) that what we modernscall Physical Science, Music, and the Novel, all had their origin atpractically the same time, about the middle of the seventeenth century (p. 9);and (3) "that the increase of personalities thus going on has brought aboutsuch complexities of relation that the older forms of expressionwere inadequate to them; and that the resulting necessityhas developed the wonderfully free and elastic form of the modern novelout of the more rigid Greek drama, through the transition formof the Elizabethan drama" (p. 10). In fulfilment of his second purpose,the author gives a detailed study of several of the novels of George Eliot,whom he takes to be the greatest modern English novelist. Even thisbrief synopsis of the book must indicate its broad and stimulating character,in which respect it is a worthy successor of `The Science of English Verse'.Despite the limitations induced by failing life, which necessitatedthe cutting down of the course of lectures from twenty to twelve,**I know of few more life-giving books; and I venture to assertthat it cannot safely be overlooked by any careful student of the subject. — Among other prose works I may mention Lanier's early extravaganza,`Three Waterfalls'; `Bob', a happy account of a pet mocking-bird,worthy of being placed beside Dr. Brown's `Rab and his Friends';his books for boys: `Froissart', `King Arthur', `Mabinogion', and `Percy',which have had, as they deserve, a large sale; and his posthumous`From Bacon to Beethoven', a highly instructive essay on music. III. Lanier's Poetry: Its Themes But it is chiefly as a poet that we wish to consider Lanier,and I turn to the posthumous edition of his `Poems' gotten out by his wife.At the outset let us ask, How did the poet look at the world?what problems engaged his attention and how were they solved?A careful investigation will show, I believe, that,despite the brevity of his life and its consuming cares,Lanier studied the chief questions of our age, and that in his poemshe has offered us noteworthy solutions. What, for instance, is more characteristic of our age than its tendencyto agnosticism? I pass by the manifestations of this spiritin the world of religion, of which so much has been heard,and give an illustration or two from the field of history and politics.Picturesque Pocahontas, we are told, is no more to be believed in;moreover, the Pilgrim Fathers did not land at Plymouth Rock,nor did Jefferson write the Declaration of Independence. Which way we turnthere is a big interrogation-point, often not for informationbut for negation. Of the good resulting from the inquisitive spirit,we all know; of the baneful influence of inquisitivenessthat has become a mere intellectual pastime or amateurish agnosticism,we likewise have some knowledge; but the evil side of this tendencyhas seldom been put more forcibly, I think, than in this stanzafrom Lanier's `Acknowledgment': "O Age that half believ'st thou half believ'st, —* `Acknowledgment', ll. 1-12.— More hurtful than agnosticism, because affecting larger masses of people,is the rapid growth of the mercantile spirit during the present century,especially in America. This evil the poet saw most clearlyand felt most keenly, as every one may learn by reading `The Symphony',his great poem in which the speakers are the various musical instruments.The violins begin: "O Trade! O Trade! would thou wert dead! Then all the stringed instruments join with the violins in givingthe wail of the poor, who "stand wedged by the pressing of Trade's hand": "`We weave in the mills and heave in the kilns, "Thereat this passionate protesting — Of even wider sweep than mercantilism is the spirit of intolerance;for, while the diffusion of knowledge and of grace has in a measurerepressed this spirit, it lacks much of being subdued. I do not wonderthat Lanier "fled in tears from men's ungodly quarrel about God,"and that, in his poem entitled `Remonstrance', he denounces intolerancewith all the vehemence of a prophet of old. But Lanier had an eye for life's beauties as well as its ills.To him music was one of earth's chief blessings. Of his early passionfor the violin and his substitution of the flute therefor,we have already learned. According to competent critics he was possiblythe greatest flute-player*1* in the world, a fact all the more interestingwhen we remember that, as he himself tells us,*2* he never had a teacher.With such a talent for music the poet has naturally strewn his pageswith fine tributes thereto. In `Tiger-lilies', for instance,he tells us that, while explorers say that they have foundsome nations that had no god, he knows of none that had no music,and then sums up the matter in this sentence: "Music means harmony;harmony means love; and love means — God!"*3* Even more explicitis this declaration in a letter of May, 1873, to Hayne: "I don't knowthat I've told you that whatever turn I may have for art is purely MUSICAL;poetry being with me A MERE TANGENT INTO WHICH I SHOOT SOMETIMES.I could play passably on several instruments before I could write legibly,and SINCE then the very deepest of my life has been filled with music,which I have studied and cultivated far more than poetry."*4*We have already seen incidentally that in his `Symphony'the speakers are musical instruments; and it is in this poem that occurshis felicitous definition, "Music is love in search of a word."*5 *In `To Beethoven' he describes the effect of music upon himself: "I know not how, I care not why, "Yea, it forgives me all my sins, It was this profound knowledge of music, of course, that enabled Lanierto write his work on `The Science of English Verse', and gave hima technical skill in versification akin to that of Tennyson. —*1* See Ward's `Memorial', pp. xx, xxxi.*2* Hayne's (P. H.) `A Poet's Letters to a Friend'.*3* `Tiger-lilies', p. 32.*4* Hayne's `A Poet's Letters to a Friend'. After settling in Baltimore Lanier devoted more time to poetry than to music, as we may see from this sentence to Judge Bleckley, in his letter of March 20, 1876: "As for me, life has resolved simply into a time during which I must get upon paper as many as possible of the poems with which my heart is stuffed like a schoolboy's pocket."*5* `The Symphony', l. 368.*6* `To Beethoven', ll. 61-68.— Like most great poets of modern times, Lanier was a sincere lover of nature.And it seems to me that with him this love was as all-embracing aswith Wordsworth. Lanier found beauty in the waving corn*1* and the clover;*2*in the mocking-bird,*3* the robin,*4* and the dove;*5*in the hickory,*6* the dogwood,*6* and the live-oak;*7*in the murmuring leaves*8* and the chattering streams;*9*in the old red hills*10* and the sea;*11* in the clouds,*12*sunrise,*13* and sunset;*14* and even in the marshes,*15*which "burst into bloom" for this worshiper. Again, Lanier's love of naturewas no less insistent than Wordsworth's. We all remember the latter'soft-quoted lines: "To me the meanest flower that blows can give and beside them one may put this line of Lanier's, "The little green leaves would not let me alone in my sleep,"*17 *because, as the context shows, he was "Shaken with happiness: And how naive and tender was this nature-worship! He speaks ofthe clover*19* and the clouds*20* as cousins, and of the leaves*21*as sisters, and in so doing reminds us of the earliest Italian poetry,especially of `The Canticle of the Sun', by St. Francis of Assisi,who brothers the wind, the fire, and the sun, and sisters the water,the stars, and the moon. Notice the tenderness in these lines of `Corn': "The leaves that wave against my cheek caress to which we find a beautiful parallel in a poem by Paul Hamilton Hayne,himself a reverent nature-worshiper: "Ah! Nature seems Moreover, this worship is restful: "Oh, what is abroad in the marsh and the terminal sea? . . . . . "By so many roots as the marsh-grass sends in the sod But to Lanier the ministration of nature was by no means passive;and we find him calling upon the leaves actively to minister to his needand even to intercede for him to their Maker: "Ye lispers, whisperers, singers in storms, In this earnest ascription of spirituality to the leaves —*1* See `The Waving of the Corn' and `Corn'.*2* See `Clover'.*3* See `The Mocking-Bird' and `To Our Mocking-Bird'.*4* See `Tampa Robins'.*5* See `The Dove'.*6* See `From the Flats', last stanza.*7* See `Sunrise'.*8* See `Sunrise' and `Corn'.*9* See `The Song of the Chattahoochee' and `Sunrise'.*10* See `Corn'.*11* See `Sunrise' and `At Sunset'.*12* See `Individuality'.*13* See `Sunrise', etc.*14* See `At Sunset'.*15* See `The Marshes of Glynn', and read Barbe's tribute to Lanier, cited in the `Bibliography'.*16* `Intimations of Immortality', ll. 202-203.*17* `The Symphony', l. 3.*18* `The Symphony', ll. 13-14.*19* `Clover', l. 57.*20* `Individuality', l. 1.*21* `Sunrise', l. 42.*22* `Corn', ll. 4-9. Compare `The Symphony', ll. 183-190.*23* Hayne's `In the Gray of Evening': Autumn, ll. 37-46, in `Poems' (Boston, 1882), p. 250.*24* `The Marshes of Glynn', ll. 61-64, 75-78.*25* `Sunrise', ll. 39-53.*26* See his `Modern Painters', vol. v., part vi., chapter iv., and Scudder's note to the same in her `Introduction to Ruskin' (Chicago, 1892), p. 249.— To take up his next theme, Lanier, like every true Teuton,from Tacitus to the present, saw "something of the divine" in woman.It was this feeling that led him so severely to condemn a vice that is saidto be growing, the marriage for convenience. I quote from `The Symphony',and the "melting Clarionet" is speaking: "So hath Trade withered up Love's sinewy prime, And then follows a wooing that, to my mind, should be irresistible, and that,at any rate, is quite as high-souled as Browning's `One Way of Love',which I have long considered the high-water-mark of the chivalrous in love.The Lady Clarionet is still speaking: "I would my lover kneeling at my feet I imagine, too, that any wife that ever lived would be satisfiedwith his glorious tribute to Mrs. Lanier in `My Springs', which closes thus: "Dear eyes, dear eyes, and rare complete — Almost equally felicitous are these lines of `Acknowledgment': "Somehow by thee, dear Love, I win content: But the cleverest thing that Lanier has written of womanoccurs in his `Laus Mariae': "But thou within thyself, dear manifold heart, — a scrap worthy to be placed beside Steele's "To love heris a liberal education," which has often been declaredthe happiest thing on the subject in the English language. —*1* `The Symphony', ll. 232-240.*2* `The Symphony', ll. 241-248.*3* `My Springs', ll. 53-56.*4* `Acknowledgment', ll. 41-42.*5* `Laus Mariae', ll. 11-14.— To Lanier there was but one thing that made life worth living,and that was love. Even the superficial reader must be struckwith the frequent use of the term in the poet's works,while all must be uplifted by his conception of its purpose and power.The ills of agnosticism, mercantilism, and intoleranceall find their solution here and here only, as is admirably set forthin `The Symphony', of which the opening strain is, "We are all for love,"and the closing, "Love alone can do." The matter is no less happily putin `Tiger-lilies': "For I am quite confident that love is the only ropethrown out by Heaven to us who have fallen overboard into life.Love for man, love for woman, love for God, — these three chimelike bells in a steeple and call us to worship, which is to work. . . .Inasmuch as we love, in so much do we conquer death and flesh;by as much as we love, by so much are we gods. For God is love;and could we love as He does, we could be as He is."*1*To the same effect is his statement in `The English Novel':"A republic is the government of the spirit."*2* The same thoughtrecurs later: "In love, and love only, can great workthat not only pulls down, but builds, be done; it is love, and love only,that is truly constructive in art."*3* In the poem entitled`How Love Looked for Hell', Mind and Sense at Love's requestgo to seek Hell; but ever as they point it out to Love, whether inthe material or the immaterial world, it vanishes; for where Love isthere can be no Hell, since, in the words of Tolstoi's story,"Where Love is there is God." But in one of his poems Lanier sums upthe whole matter in a line: "When life's all love, 'tis life: aught else, 'tis naught."*4 *—*1* `Tiger-lilies', p. 26.*2* `The English Novel', p. 55.*3* `The English Novel', p. 204.*4* `In Absence', l. 42.— It is but a short way from love to its source, — God.And, as Lanier was continually in the atmosphere of the one, so, I believe,he was ever in the presence of the other; for the poet's "Love means God"is but another phrasing of the evangelist's "God is love".*1*Of Lanier's grief over church broils and of his longing for freedomto worship God according to one's own intuition, we have already learnedfrom his `Remonstrance'. What he thought of the Christ we learnfrom `The Crystal', which closes with this invocation: "But Thee, but Thee, O sovereign Seer of time, How tenderly Lanier was touched by the life of our Lord may be seenin his `Ballad of Trees and the Master', a dramatic presentation of the scenein Gethsemane and on Calvary. How implicit was his trust in the Christmay be gathered from this paragraph in a letter to the elder Hayne:"I have a boy whose eyes are blue as your `Aethra's'. Every daywhen my work is done I take him in my strong arms, and lift him up,and pore in his face. The intense repose, penetrated somehowwith a thrilling mystery of `potential activity', which dwellsin his large, open eye, teaches me new things. I say to myself,Where are the strong arms in which I, too, might lay me and repose,and yet be full of the fire of life? And always through the twilightcome answers from the other world, `Master! Master! there is one — Christ —in His arms we rest!'"*3* Perhaps, however, Lanier's notion of God,whom he declared*4* all his roads reached, is most clearly expressedin a scrap quoted by Ward, apparently the outline for a poem:"I fled in tears from the men's ungodly quarrel about God.I fled in tears to the woods, and laid me down on the earth.Then somewhat like the beating of many hearts came up to me out of the ground;and I looked and my cheek lay close to a violet. Then my heart took courage,and I said: `I know that thou art the word of my God, dear Violet.And oh, the ladder is not long that to my heaven leads.Measure what space a violet stands above the ground. 'Tis no further climbingthat my soul and angels have to do than that.'"*5* In this high spiritualityLanier is in line with the greatest poets of our race, from "Caedmon, in the morn to him "Who never turned his back, but marched breast forward, —*1* 1 John 4:16.*2* `The Crystal', ll. 100-111.*3* Hayne's `A Poet's Letters to a Friend'.*4* In `A Florida Sunday', l. 85.*5* Ward's `Memorial', p. xxxix.*6* Lanier's `The Crystal', ll. 90-93.*7* Browning's `Asolando': Epilogue, ll. 11-15.— Perhaps I may append here a paragraph upon Lanier's criticismsof other writers, for they seem to me acute in the extreme.Despite the elaborate essays in defence of Whitman's poetryby Dowden,*1* Symonds,*2* and Whitman himself, I believe Lanier is rightin declaring that "Whitman is poetry's butcher. Huge raw collopsslashed from the rump of poetry and never mind gristle —is what Whitman feeds our souls with. As near as I can make it out,Whitman's argument seems to be, that, because a prairie is wide,therefore debauchery is admirable, and because the Mississippi is long,therefore every American is God."*3* Notice, again, how wellthe defect of `Paradise Lost' is pointed out: "And I forgive Few better things have been said of Langland than this, — "That with but a touch or of Emerson than this, — "Most wise, that yet, in finding Wisdom, lost or of Tennyson than this, — "Largest voice `The Crystal' abounds in such happy characterizations. —*1* See Dowden's `Studies in Literature', pp. 468-523.*2* See Symonds's `Walt Whitman: A Study'. London, 1893.*3* Ward's `Memorial', p. xxxviii.*4* `The Crystal', ll. 66-70.*5* Ibid., ll. 87-90.*6* Ibid., ll. 93-94.*7* Ibid., ll. 95-97.— IV. Lanier's Poetry: Its Style So much for the poet's thoughts; what shall we say of their expression?In other words, is Lanier the literary artist equal to Lanier the seer?In order the better to answer this question, let us begin at the beginning,with the elements of style, some of which, however, I pass byas not calling for special comment. Of Lanier's felicitous choice of words we have already hadincidental illustration; but it is desirable, perhaps, to group herea few of his happiest phrases, to show that, as Lowell*1* said,he is "a man of genius with a rare gift for the happy word."Notice this speech about the brook: "And down the hollow from a ferny nook and this of the well-bucket: "The rattling bucket plumps and this of the outburst of a bird: "Dumb woods, have ye uttered a bird?"*4 *and the description of a mocking-bird as "Yon trim Shakspere on the tree;"*5 *and of midnight as "Death's and truth's unlocking time."*6 *Moreover, it should be observed that Lanier frequently usessignificant compounds, — a habit acquired, no doubt,from his study of Old English, in which, as in German, such compounds abound. —*1* See `Lowell' in `Bibliography'.*2* `From the Flats', ll. 23-24; cited by Gates. [Line 24 was changed (to "Bright leaps a living brook!") in later editions. — A. L., 1998.]*3* `Clover', ll. 29-30.*4* `Sunrise', l. 57; cited by Gates.*5* `The Mocking-Bird', l. 14.*6* `The Crystal', l. 1. Other illustrations may be found in the paragraph on figures of speech.— While in the main Lanier's sentence-construction is good,occasionally his sentences are too long, as in `My Springs',`To Bayard Taylor', and `Sunrise', in which we have sentenceslonger than the opening one in `Paradise Lost', and, what is of more moment,not so well balanced, and hence affording fewer breathing spaces.That this detracts from clearness and euphony both, every reader will admit. To come to the figures of speech, one must be struck at oncewith the delicacy and the vigor of Lanier's imagination. The poet's fancypersonifies what at first blush seems to us incapable of personification.Thus at one time*1* he likens men to clover-leaves and the Course-of-thingsto the browsing ox, which makes way with the clover-heads;while at another he addresses an old red hill of Georgia as "Thou gashed and hairy Lear Like other Southern poets,*3* Lanier sometimes fails to check his imagination,and in consequence leaves his readers "bramble-tangled in a brilliant maze,"as in his description of the stars in `June Dreams'*4*and in the `Psalm of the West'.*5* While I do not like a maze,brilliant though it be and sweet, I must say that I preferthe embarrassment of riches to the embarrassment of poverty. On the whole,however, Lanier's figures strike me as singularly fresh and happy.In `Sunrise', for example, the poet speaks of the marsh as follows: "The tide's at full: the marsh with flooded streams and of the heavens reflected in the marsh waters: "Each winding creek in grave entrancement lies Later, as the ebb-tide flows from marsh to sea, we are parenthetically treatedto these two lines: "Run home, little streams, Finally, the heaven itself is thus pictured: "Now in each pettiest personal sphere of dew beside which must be hung this exquisite picture: "The dew-drop morn may fall from off the petal of the sky."*10 *—*1* In `Clover'.*2* `Corn', ll. 185-187.*3* See on this point the remarks of Professor Trent in his admirable life of `Simms' (Boston, 1892), p. 149.*4* `June Dreams', l. 21 ff.*5* `Psalm of the West', l. 183 ff.*6* `Sunrise', ll. 80-81.*7* Ibid., ll. 82-85.*8* Ibid., ll. 114-115.*9* Ibid., ll. 134-136.*10* `The Ship of Earth', l. 5.— As to versification, Lanier uses almost all the types of verse— iambic, trochaic, blank, the sonnet, etc. — and with about equal skill.Three features, however, specially characterize his verse:the careful distribution of vowel-colors and the frequent useof alliteration and of phonetic syzygy,*1* by which last is meanta combination or succession of identical or similar consonants,whether initially, medially, or finally, as for instancethe succession of M's in Tennyson's "The moan of doves in immemorial elms All of these phenomena are illustrated in Lanier's`Song of the Chattahoochee', which has often been comparedto Tennyson's `The Brook', and which alone proves the authora master in versification. To be sure, Lanier occasionally gives usan improper rhyme, as `thwart: heart',*2* etc., but so does every poet.No doubt, too, his love of music sometimes led him,not "to strain for form effects", but to indulge too much therein,or, in the words of Mr. Stedman, "to essay in languagefeats that only the gamut can render possible."*3* But, as Professor Kentadmirably puts it, "Lanier was a poet as well as an artist,and if at times his artistic temperament seemed to eclipse his poetic thought,grant that to the poet mind the very manner of expressionmay indicate the thought that lies beneath, while to the duller earthe thought must come in completed form."*4* Moreover, as we shall see later,this extraordinary musical endowment gave Lanier a unique positionamong English poets. —*1* See `The Science of English Verse', p. 306 ff.*2* `In the Foam', ll. 6, 8. See, too, Kent's `Study of Lanier's Poems', which gives an exhaustive treatment of Lanier's versification.*3* Stedman's `Poets of America', p. 449.*4* `Kent', p. 60.— After what has been said the qualities of style may be briefly handled.As we have already seen, Lanier sometimes fails in clearness,or, more precisely, in simplicity. This comes partlyfrom infelicitous sentence-construction, partly, perhaps,from Lanier's extraordinary musical endowment, but chiefly, I think,from over-luxuriance of imagination. But this occasional defecthas been unduly exaggerated. Thus Mr. Gosse*1* declaresthat Lanier is "never simple, never easy, never in one single lyricnatural and spontaneous for more than one stanza," — a statementso clearly hyperbolic as hardly to call for notice. As a matter of fact,Lanier has written numerous poems that offer little or no difficultyto the reader of average intelligence, as `Life and Song', `My Springs',`The Symphony', `The Mocking-Bird', `The Song of the Chattahoochee',`The Waving of the Corn', `The Revenge of Hamish', `Remonstrance',`A Ballad of Trees and the Master', etc. More than this,Lanier at times manifests the simplicity that is grantedonly to genius of the highest order: thus an English critic,*2*who by the way declares that Lanier's volume has more of genius thanall the poems of Poe, or Longfellow, or Lowell (the humorous poems excepted),and who considers Lanier the most original of all American poets,and more original than any England has produced for the last thirty years,says that "nothing can be more perfect than — `The whole sweet round lines in `My Springs', and that "the touch of wonder in the last two lines, `I marvel that God made you mine, is as simple and exquisite as any touch of tenderness in our literature."I frankly admit that several of Lanier's best poems,as `Corn', `The Marshes of Glynn', and `Sunrise', are not simple;but the same thing is true of Milton's `Paradise Lost' and of Browning's`The Ring and the Book', and yet this fact does not exclude these two worksfrom the list of great poems. Mr. Gosse, however, declares that `Corn',`Sunrise', and `The Marshes of Glynn' "simulate poetic expressionwith extraordinary skill. But of the real thing, of the genuinetraditional article, not a trace"! What do these poems show, then?Mr. Gosse answers: "I find a painful effort, a strain and rage,the most prominent qualities in everything he wrote;" which strikes meas the reverse of the facts. In one of his letters*5* to Judge Bleckley,Lanier wrote this sentence: "My head and my heart are both so full of poemswhich the dreadful struggle for bread does not give me timeto put on paper, that I am often driven to headache and heartache,purely for want of an hour or two to hold a pen." If, then,he committed an error (and I am far from considering him faultless),it was not that he beat and spurred on Pegasus, but that he failedto rein him in. Still, I repeat that I prefer the embarrassment of richesto the embarrassment of poverty. Finally, just as Milton tells usthat the music of the spheres is not to be heard by the gross, unpurged ear,so I believe that many intelligent ears and eyes are at firsttoo gross to hear and see what Lanier puts before them,whereas a bit of patient listening and looking reveals delightshitherto undreamed of. —*1* See `Bibliography'.*2* `The Spectator' (London); see `Bibliography'.*3* `My Springs', ll. 49-50.*4* `My Springs', ll. 55-56.*5* It is to be hoped that these letters may yet be published. I quote from one dated November 15, 1874.— If not always simple, Lanier is often forcible in the extreme,as in `The Symphony', `The Revenge of Hamish', `Remonstrance', and `Sunrise'.Of course, it is open to any one to see in these poems the "rage"attributed to Lanier by Mr. Gosse, but I prefer to consider it divine wrathin all but the last, and in it wonder unutterable, which yet is so utteredthat ears become eyes. I allude to the stanzas* describingthe break of dawn and the rising of the sun. —* `Sunrise', ll. 86-152.— Of the poet's marvelous euphony, `The Song of the Chattahoochee'speaks clearly enough. As we have seen in our treatment of versification,it is here a question not of too little but of too much.But, despite an occasional too great yielding to his passion for music,his extraordinary endowment in this direction gave Lanier a unique positionamong English poets. I quote again from Professor Kent:*"But if his sense of beauty made him a peer of our great poets,it was the heavenly gift of music that distinguished him from them.Milton, it is true, whom he most resembles in this respect,had a knowledge of music, but not the same passion for it. Milton's musicwas more a recreation, an accompaniment of reverie; Lanier's was a fiery zeal;a yearning love, a chosen and adequate form of expressionof his soul's deepest feeling. Combined with this passion for musicwas his technical knowledge of the art, and these combined formed at oncethe foundation and the framework of his poetry. He seems literallyto have sung his poems; they are essentially musical, tuneful, and melodious.Surcharged with music, he overflows in mellifluous numbers. Here, then,Lanier stands out differentiated in the choir of poets, and here we findthat distinctive quality which is the very flavor of his writing." —* P. 62.— While most of Lanier's poems are in a serious strain,several disclose no mean sense of humor. I refer to his dialect poems,such as `Jones's Private Argyment', `Uncle Jim's Baptist Revival Hymn',and `The Power of Prayer', especially the last, written in conjunctionwith his brother, Mr. Clifford Lanier. There are passages in the poems no less pathetic than the poet's life.In discussing his love of nature we have seen that he was a pantheistin the best sense of the term. So delicate was his sensibilitythat we do not wonder when we hear him declaring, "And I am one with all the kinsmen things a saying as felicitous as the Roman's "I am a man, and, therefore,nothing human is stranger to me." The tenderness ofthe `Ballad of Trees and the Master' must touch all readers.Few passages are more pathetic, I think, than that, in `June Dreamsin January', telling of the poet's struggle for bread and fame,while "his worshipful sweet wife sat still, afar, within the villagewhence she sent him forth, waiting all confident and proud and calm."And, if there occurs therein a plaintive tone, let us rememberthat it is the only time that he complained of his lot,and that here really he has more in mind his dearer self, his wife,and that calm succeeded to unrest just as it does in this passage: "`Why can we poets dream us beauty, so, — V. Lanier's Theory of Poetry It is now time to say a word about Lanier's theory of art,especially the art of poetry. His views upon the formal side of poetry havealready been noticed in the consideration of his `Science of English Verse',and hence receive no further comment here. That Lanier keenly appreciated the responsibility resting upon the artist,appears from `Individuality', where he tells us, "Awful is art because 'tis free,"*1 *and, "Each artist — gift of terror! — owns his will."*2 *But he accepts the responsibility reverently and confidently: "I work in freedom wild, —*1* `Individuality', l. 62.*2* `Individuality', l. 76.*3* `Individuality', ll. 89-91.— Again, the province of poetry is pointed out, as in `Clover': "The artist's market is the heart of man; and in `The Bee': "Wilt ask, `What profit e'er a poet brings?' In `Corn',*3* too, the "tall corn-captain" "types the poet-soul sublime." —*1* `Clover', ll. 126-127.*2* `The Bee', ll. 40-42.*3* `Corn', l. 52 ff.— But it is in his prose works that Lanier has treated the mattermost at length, and to these I turn. In the first place,he insists that to be an artist one must know a great deal,a statement that would appear superfluous but for its frequent overlookingby would-be artists. Hence he is right in warning young writers:"You need not dream of winning the attention of sober people with your poetryunless that poetry and your soul behind it are informed and saturatedwith at least the largest final conceptions of current science."*That Lanier strove to follow this precept, we have abundant evidencein his life and in his works; and I think that, if we rememberhis environments, we must wonder at the vastness, the accuracy,and the variety of his knowledge. As additionally illustrative of the last,I may add that Lanier invented some improvements for the flute,and made a discovery in the physics of music that the Professor of Physicsin the University of Virginia thought considerable. **— In the second place, Lanier thinks that a poet's knowledge of his artshould be scientific. It was this that led him to write`The Science of English Verse', the motto of which is,"But the best conceptions cannot be, save where science and genius are."In `The English Novel' he declares that "not a single versewas ever written by instinct alone since the world began,"*and fortifies his statement by Ben Jonson's tribute to Shakespeare, — "For a good poet's made as well as born, But Lanier clearly saw that no formal laws and no amountof scientific knowledge could alone make a poet, as appears from the mottoabove quoted, from the closing chapter of `The Science of English Verse',which tells us that the educated love of beauty is the artist's only law,and from this other motto, from Sir Philip Sidney: "A Poet,no industrie can make, if his owne Genius bee not carried unto it." —* `The English Novel', p. 33.— In the third place, Lanier holds that a moral intention on the partof an artist does not interfere with the naturalness or intrinsic beautyof his work; that in art the controlling consideration is rather moralthan artistic beauty; but that moral beauty and artistic beauty,so far from being distinct or opposed, are convergent and mutually helpful.This thesis he upholds in the following eloquent and cogent passage:"Permit me to recall to you in the first place that the requirementhas been from time immemorial that wherever there is contestas between artistic and moral beauty, unless the moral side prevail,all is lost. Let any sculptor hew us out the most ravishing combinationof tender curves and spheric softness that ever stood for woman;yet if the lip have a certain fulness that hints of the flesh,if the brow be insincere, if in the minutest particular the physical beautysuggest a moral ugliness, that sculptor — unless he be portrayinga moral ugliness for a moral purpose — may as well give over his marblefor paving-stones. Time, whose judgments are inexorably moral, will notaccept his work. For indeed we may say that he who has not yet perceivedhow artistic beauty and moral beauty are convergent lines which run backinto a common ideal origin, and who therefore is not afirewith moral beauty just as with artistic beauty — that he, in short,who has not come to that stage of quiet and eternal frenzyin which the beauty of holiness and the holiness of beauty mean one thing,burn as one fire, shine as one light, within him; he is not yetthe great artist."* By copious quotations Lanier then showsthat "many fine and beautiful souls appear after a whileto lose all sense of distinction between these terms, Beauty, Truth, Love,Wisdom, Goodness, and the like," and concludes thus: "And if this be true,cannot one say with authority to the young artist, — whether workingin stone, in color, in tones, or in character-forms of the novel:so far from dreading that your moral purpose will interferewith your beautiful creation, go forward in the clear convictionthat unless you are suffused — soul and body, one might say —with that moral purpose which finds its largest expression in love— that is, the love of all things in their proper relation —unless you are suffused with this love, do not dare to meddle with beauty;unless you are suffused with beauty, do not meddle with love;unless you are suffused with truth, do not dare to meddle with goodness; —in a word, unless you are suffused with beauty, truth, wisdom, goodness,AND love, abandon the hope that the ages will accept you as an artist." **— VI. Conclusion Milton has somewhere said that in order to be a great poetone must himself be a true poem, a dictum none the less trustworthybecause of its inapplicability to its author along withseveral other great poets. Now of all English poets,I know of none that came nearer being a true poem than did Lanier.He was as spotless as "the Lady of Christ's", and infinitely more lovable.Indeed, he seems to me to have realized the ideal of his own knightly Horn,who hopes that some day men will be "maids in purity".*I will not recall his gentle yet heroic life amid drawbacksalmost unparalleled; for it is even sadder than it is beautiful.It is my deliberate judgment that, while, as the poet saysin his `Life and Song', no singer has ever wholly livedhis minstrelsy, Lanier came so near it that we may fairly say,in the closing lines of the poem, "His song was only living aloud, And, for my part, I am as grateful for his noble private lifeas for his distinguished public work. —* `The Symphony', l. 302.— And yet I will not close with this picture of the man; for my purposeis rather to present the poet. Hampered though he was by fewness of years,by feebleness of body, by shortness of bread, and, most of all perhaps,by over-luxuriance of imagination, Lanier was yet, to my mind,indisputably a great poet. For in technique he was akin to Tennyson;*in the love of beauty and in lyric sweetness, to Keats and Shelley;in the love of nature, to Wordsworth; and in spirituality, to Ruskin,the gist of whose teaching is that we are souls temporarily having bodies;to Milton, "God-gifted organ-voice of England"; and to Browning,"subtlest assertor of the soul in song". To be sure, Lanier's geniusis not equal to that of any one of the poets mentioned,but I venture to believe that it is of the same order, and, therefore,deserving of lasting remembrance. — Poems Life and Song If life were caught by a clarionet, [1] Then would this breathing clarionet Or clearly sung his true, true thought, Or lived and sung, that Life and Song So that the wonder struck the crowd, ____1868. Notes: Life and Song `Life and Song' is the fifth of a series of seven poemspublished under the general heading of `Street-cries',with the two stanzas following as an introduction: "Oft seems the Time a market-town "Their needs, as wares; one THUS, one SO: The remaining numbers of the series are: 1. `Remonstrance',given in this volume; 2. `The Ship of Earth'; 3. `How Love Looked for Hell';4. `Tyranny'; 6. `To Richard Wagner'; 7. `A Song of Love'. I can think of no more helpful comment on the subject of our poemthan this sentence from Milton's `Apology for Smectymnuus',already alluded to in the `Introduction' (p. liv [Part VI]):"And long it was not after, when I was confirmed in this opinion,that he who would not be frustrate of his hope to write well hereafterin laudable things, ought himself to be a true poem; that is,a composition and pattern of the best and honorablest things;not presuming to sing high praises of heroic men or famous cities,unless he have in himself the experience and the practice of all thatwhich is praiseworthy." Lines 19-20. I have been pleased to discover that the applicationI have made of this poem, especially of these lines(see `Introduction', p. liv [Part VI]), is likewise madeby most students of Lanier's life, and that Mrs. Lanier has chosenthese two lines for inscription on the monument to be erected to his memory.On the reverse side of the stone, I may add, are to be put these words:"He that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God" (I John iv. 16). Jones's Private Argyment That air same Jones, which lived in Jones, [1] That bankers, warehousemen, and sich And the only thing (says Jones) to do [11] Thus spouted Jones (whar folks could hear, But, one all-fired sweatin' day, [21] And a'ter twelve o'clock had come And Jones was settin' in it, SO: [31] The mules they stopped about a rod And presently says he: "Hit's true; [41] "More corn! more corn! MUST plant less ground, ____Macon, Ga., 1870. Notes: Jones's Private Argyment The themes of this poem, the relative claims of corn and cottonupon the attention of the farmer and the disastrous results of speculation,are treated indirectly in `Thar's More in the Man Than Thar Is in the Land',and directly and with consummate art in `Corn'. 1. "That air same Jones" appears in `Thar's More', etc., written in 1869,in which we are told: "And he lived pretty much by gittin' of loans, He sells his farm to Brown at a dollar and fifty cents an acreand goes to Texas. Brown improves the farm, and, after five years,is sitting down to a big dinner when Jones is discovered standingout by the fence, without wagon or mules, "fur he had left Texas afootand cum to Georgy to see if he couldn't git some employment."Brown invites Jones in to dinner, but cannot refrainfrom the inference-drawing that names the poem. — "Which lived in Jones,""which Jones is a county of red hills and stones" (`Thar's More', etc.)in central Georgia. 13. Readers of `David Copperfield' will recall Micawber'sfrequent use of `I-O-U-'s'. 47. "Clisby's head" refers to Mr. Joseph Clisby, then editorof the Macon (Ga.) `Telegraph and Messenger', who had written editorialsfavoring the planting of more corn. Corn To-day the woods are trembling through and through [1] I wander to the zigzag-cornered fence There, while I pause, my fieldward-faring eyes Look, out of line one tall corn-captain stands As poets should, O steadfast dweller on the selfsame spot [111] Old hill! old hill! thou gashed and hairy Lear ____Sunnyside, Ga., August, 1874. Notes: Corn As stated elsewhere (`Introduction', p. xvii [Part I]),`Corn' was the first of Lanier's poems to attract general attention;for this reason as well as for its absolute merit the poem deservescareful study. In the first of his letters to the Hon. Logan E. Bleckley,Chief-justice of Georgia, dated October 9, 1874, Lanier tells ushow he came to write `Corn': "I enclose MS. of a poemin which I have endeavored to carry some very prosaic mattersup to a loftier plane. I have been struck with alarmin seeing the numbers of deserted old homesteads and gullied hillsin the older counties of Georgia: and, though they aredreadfully commonplace, I have thought they are surely mournful enoughto be poetic." In the introductory note to `Jones's Private Argyment'I have incidentally stated the theme of `Corn'. Instead of addinga more detailed statement of my own here, I give Judge Bleckley'sanalysis of the poem, which occurs in his reply to the above-mentioned letter.After giving various minute criticism (for Lanier had requestedhis unreserved judgment), Judge Bleckley continues:"Now, for the general impression which your Ode has made upon me.It presents four pictures; three of them landscapes and one a portrait.You paint the woods, a corn-field, and a worn-out hill.These are your landscapes. And your portrait is the likeness of an anxious,unthrifty cotton-planter who always spends his crop before he has made it,borrows on heavy interest to carry himself over from year to year,wears out his land, meets at last with utter ruin, and migrates to the West.Your second landscape is turned into a vegetable person,and you give its portrait with many touches of marvel and mysteryin vegetable life. Your third landscape takes for an instantthe form and tragic state of King Lear; you thus make itseize on our sympathies as if it were a real person, and you then restore itto the inanimate, and contemplate its possible beneficencein the distant future." A comparison of the first draft of `Corn', as sent Judge Bleckley,with the final form shows that Lanier made many minute changes in the poem,especially in the earlier part. Still this earlier draft agrees substantiallywith the later, and was so fine in conception and executionas to call forth this commendation of Judge Bleckley, which,despite the shortcomings of `Corn', may with greater justice be appliedto the poem in its present form: "As an artist you seem to be Italianin the first two pictures, and Dutch or Flemish in the latter two.In your Italian vein you paint with the utmost delicacy and finish.The drawing is scrupulously correct and the color soft and harmonious.When you paint in Dutch or Flemish you are clear and strong,but sometimes hard. There is less idealization and more ofthe realistic element — your SOLIDS predominate over your fluids." As already stated, Lanier has two other poems that indirectly treat the themeof `Corn', namely, `Thar's More in the Man' and `Jones's Private Argyment'.Moreover, he has `The Waving of the Corn', which, though charming,is neither so elaborate nor artistic as `Corn'. Among poems on corn by other writers may be mentioned the following: 1. Whittier's `The Corn-song' (before 1872), a poem ofpraise and thanksgiving at the end of `The Huskers',which tells of the gathering of the corn and of the "corn-husking",known in the South as the "corn-shucking". 2. Woolson's (Constance F.) `Corn Fields', a description of Ohio fields,in `Harper's Monthly', 45, 444, Aug., 1872. 3. Thompson's (Maurice) `Dropping Corn' (1877), a dainty love lyric,in `Poems' (Boston, 1892), p. 78. 4. Cromwell's (S. C.) `Corn-shucking Song', a dialect poem,in `Harper', 69, 807, Oct., 1884. 5. Coleman's (C. W.) `Corn', in `The Atlantic Monthly', 70, 228, Aug., 1892,which, since it consists of but four lines and is more like Lanier's poemthan are the others, may be quoted: "Drawn up in serried ranks across the fields 6. Hayne's (W. H.) `Amid the Corn', a charming account of the denizensof the corn-fields, in his `Sylvan Lyrics' (New York, 1893), p. 12. 7. Dumas's (W. T.) `Corn-shucking' and `The Last Ear of Corn',both life-like pictures of plantation life, in his`The Golden Day and Miscellaneous Poems' (Phila., 1893). Other interesting articles are: `Mondamin, or the Origin of Indian Corn',in `The Southern Literary Messenger' (Richmond, Va.), 29, 12-13, July, 1859;`A Georgia Corn-shucking', by D. C. Barrow, Jr., in `The Century Magazine'(New York), 2, 873-878, Oct., 1882; and `Old American Customs: A Corn-party',an account of a corn-husking in New York, in `The Saturday Review' (London),66, 237-238, Aug. 25, 1888. 4-9. See `Introduction', p. xxxii [Part III], and compare `The Symphony',ll. 183-190. 18. Paul Hamilton Hayne, whose love of nature rivals Lanier's,has an interesting poem entitled `Muscadines' (`Poems', Boston, 1882,pp. 222-224). 21. Compare `The Symphony', l. 117 ff. 57. See `Introduction', p. l [Part V]. 125. In her introductory note to `Corn' Mrs. Lanier thus localizes the poem:"His `fieldward-faring eyes took harvest' `among the stately corn-ranks,'in a portion of middle Georgia sixty miles to the north of Macon.It is a high tract of country from which one looks across the lower reachesto the distant Blue Ridge Mountains, whose wholesome breath,all unobstructed, here blends with the woods-odors of the beech, the hickory,and the muscadine: a part of a range recalled elsewhere by Mr. Lanieras `that ample stretch of generous soil, where the Appalachian ruggednessescalm themselves into pleasant hills before dying quite awayinto the sea-board levels' — where `a man can findsuch temperances of heaven and earth — enough of struggle with natureto draw out manhood, with enough of bounty to sanction the struggle —that a more exquisite co-adaptation of all blessed circumstancesfor man's life need not be sought.'" 140. See `Jason' in any Dictionary of Mythology. *—* Gayley's `The Classic Myths in English Literature' (Boston, Ginn & Co.) is an excellent book.— 157. `Dives': See Appendix to Webster's `International Dictionary'. 168. `Future Sale' — sale for future delivery. 185-6. See Shakespeare's `King Lear'. My Springs In the heart of the Hills of Life, I know [1] Not larger than two eyes, they lie Shot through with lights of stars and dawns, Always when the large Form of Love Always when Faith with stifling stress Always when Charity and Hope, [21] Always, when Art on perverse wing When Labor faints, and Glory fails, O Love, O Wife, thine eyes are they, Oval and large and passion-pure Thronged, like two dove-cotes of gray doves, [41] And loves for all that God and man And diamonds and the whole sweet round Dear eyes, dear eyes and rare complete — ____Baltimore, 1874. Notes: My Springs For my appreciation of this tribute to the poet's wifesee `Introduction', p. xxxv [Part III]. Mr. Lanier's estimate is givenin a letter of March, 1874, quoted in Mrs. Lanier's introductory note:"Of course, since I have written it to print I cannot make it suchas Idesire in artistic design: for the forms of to-dayrequire a certain trim smugness and clean-shaven proprietyin the face and dress of a poem, and I must win a hearingby conforming in some degree to these tyrannies, with a viewto overturning them in the future. Written so, it is not nearly so beautifulas I would have it; and I therefore have another still in my heart,which I will some day write for myself." Other tributes to his wife are: `In Absence', `Acknowledgment', It will be interesting to compare `My Springs' with other poems on the eyes. "And those eyes, the break of day, Lodge's "Her eyes are sapphires set in snow, Jonson's "Drink to me only with thine eyes Herrick's "Sweet, be not proud of those two eyes Thomas Stanley's "Oh turn away those cruel eyes, Byron's "She walks in beauty, like the night, H. Coleridge's "She is not fair to outward view, "But now her looks are coy and cold, and Wordsworth's "Her eyes are stars of twilight fair." — 49-50. See `Introduction', p. xlv [Part IV]. 52. There is in early English literature a most interesting playentitled `Mary Magdalene': see Pollard's `English Miracle Plays' (New York),where extracts are given. 55-56. See `Introduction', p. xlvi [Part IV]. The Symphony "O Trade! O Trade! would thou wert dead! [1] And then, as when from words that seem but rude Thereto a thrilling calm succeeds, [211] There thrust the bold straightforward horn And then the hautboy played and smiled, "Life! Life! thou sea-fugue, writ from east to west, "And yet shall Love himself be heard, ____Baltimore, 1875. Notes: The Symphony The `Introduction' (pp. xxviii f., xxxiii ff. [Part III], xlvii [Part IV])gives, besides the plan of `The Symphony', a detailed statementof its two themes, — the evils of the trade-spiritin the commercial and social world and the need in each of the love-spirit.These questions preyed on the poet's mind and were to be treated at lengthin `The Jacquerie' also, which he expected to make his great work,but which he was unable to complete. This he tells us in a noble passageto Judge Bleckley, in his letter of November 15, 1874. After deploringthe lack of time for literary labor (see quotation in `Introduction',p. xlvi [Part IV]), he continues: "I manage to get a little time tho'to work on what is to be my first `magnum opus', a long poem,founded on that strange uprising in the middle of the fourteenth centuryin France, called `The Jacquerie'. It was the first timethat the big hungers of `the People' appear in our modern civilization;and it is full of significance. The peasants learnedfrom the merchant potentates of Flanders that a man who could not bea lord by birth, might be one by wealth; and so Trade arose,and overthrew Chivalry. Trade has now had possession of the civilized worldfor four hundred years: it controls all things, it interprets the Bible,it guides our national and almost all our individual life with its maxims;and its oppressions upon the moral existence of man have come to beten thousand times more grievous than the worst tyrannies of the Feudal Systemever were. Thus in the reversals of time, it is NOW the GENTLEMANwho must rise and overthrow Trade. That chivalry which every man has,in some degree, in his heart; which does not depend upon birth,but which is a revelation from God of justice, of fair dealing,of scorn of mean advantages; which contemns the selling of stock whichone KNOWS is going to fall, to a man who BELIEVES it is going to rise,as much as it would contemn any other form of rascality or of injusticeor of meanness; — it is this which must in these latter daysorganize its insurrections and burn up every one of the cunning moral castlesfrom which Trade sends out its forays upon the conscience of modern society.— This is about the plan which is to run through my book:though I conceal it under the form of a pure novel." Mr. F. F. Browne is doubtless right in saying that `The Symphony' recallsparts of Tennyson's `Maud', but the closest congeners of `The Symphony'in English are, I think, Langland's `Piers The Plowman' in poetryand Ruskin's `Unto This Last' in prose. Widely as these two worksdiffer from `The Symphony' in form, they are one with itin purpose and in spirit. All three voice the outcry of the pooragainst the hardness of their lot and their longing for a larger life;all three show that the only hope of relief lies in a broader and deeperlove for humanity. Analogues to individual verses of `The Symphony'are cited below. 1-2. See `Introduction', p. xxviii [Part III]. 31-61. See `Introduction', p. xxix [Part III]. 42-43. See St. Matthew 4:4. 55-60. It is precisely this evil that Ruskin has in mind, I take it,when he condemns the commercial text, "Buy in the cheapest market and sellin the dearest," and when he declares that "Competition is the law of death"(`Unto This Last', pp. 40, 59). 117. Compare `Corn', l. 21 ff. 161. For `lotos-sleeps' see Tennyson's `The Lotos-eaters',which almost lulls one to sleep, and `The Odyssey' ix. 80-104. 178. See St. Matthew 19:19. 182. See St. Luke 10:29, ff. 183-190. Compare `Corn', ll. 4-9, and see `Introduction',p. xxxii [Part III]. 232-248. See `Introduction', p. xxxiv f., and Peacock's`Lady Clarinda's Song' (Gosse's `English Lyrics'). 294-298. See `Tiger-lilies', p. 49, and `Betrayal' in Lanier'scomplete `Poems', p. 213. These lines of `The Symphony' show clearly thatLanier did not believe that God made one law for man and another for woman,or that one very grievous sin should forever blight a woman's life.What Christ himself thought is clear from St. Luke 7:36-50,and St. John 8:1-11. 302. See `Introduction', p. liv [Part VI]. 326. For a full account of the `hautboy' and other musical instrumentsmentioned in the poem see Lanier's `The Orchestra of To-day',cited in the `Bibliography'. 359. See `Introduction', p. xxxvi [Part III]. Compare 1 Corinthians 13;Drummond's `The Greatest Thing in the World'; William Morris's`Love Is Enough'; `Aurora Leigh', Book ix.: "Art is much, but Love is more! and Langland's `Piers the Plowman' (ed. by Skeat, i. 202-3): "Love is leche of lyf and nexte oure Lorde selve, —* The two lines may be translated: "Love is the physician of life and next to our Lord himself; moreover, it is the way that goes straight to Heaven."— 368. See `Introduction', p. xxxii [Part III]. The Power of Prayer; or, The First Steamboat up the Alabama By Sidney and Clifford Lanier You, Dinah! Come and set me whar de ribber-roads does meet. [1] It 'pear to me dis mornin' I kin smell de fust o' June. Well, ef dis nigger IS been blind for fo'ty year or mo', I know my front ones IS stopped up, and things is sort o' dim, And as for Hebben, — bless de Lord, and praise His holy name — Who CALL me? Listen down de ribber, Dinah! Don't you hyar My stars, dat cain't be Sarah, shuh! Jes' listen, Dinah, NOW! De Lord 'a' mussy sakes alive, jes' hear, — ker-woof, ker-woof — I'se pow'ful skeered; but neversomeless I ain't gwine run away: O hebbenly Marster, what thou willest, dat mus' be jes' so, 'Scuse Dinah, 'scuse her, Marster; for she's sich a little chile, [31] I'se wufless as de rotten pole of las' year's fodder-stack. What use de wheel, when hub and spokes is warped and split, and rotten? But, Dinah! Shuh dat gal jes' like dis little hick'ry tree, I would not proud persume — but I'll boldly make reques'; And what for waste de vittles, now, and th'ow away de bread, Stop; — ef I don't believe de Debble's gone on up de stream! O glory hallelujah to de Lord dat reigns on high! You, Dinah; ain't you 'shamed, now, dat you didn' trust to grace? I tell you, Dinah, jes' as shuh as you is standin' dar, ____Baltimore, 1875. Notes: The Power of Prayer; or, The First Steamboat up the Alabama As the title-page shows, `The Power of Prayer' is the joint productionof Sidney and Clifford Lanier. The latter gentleman informs methat once he read a newspaper scrap of about ten lines stating that a Negroon first seeing a steamboat coming down the river was greatly frightened.Mr. Lanier then wrote out in metrical form the plot of `The Power of Prayer',substantially as we now have it, and sent it to his brother Sidney,who polished it up and published it under their joint names.Mr. Clifford Lanier had not seen the piece mentioned in the next paragraph,nor had his brother; but on being shown the piece, the formerwas of the opinion that his newspaper clipping must have been basedon the work to which I turn, as it had already appeared and the incidentswere so much alike. In the third chapter of `The Gilded Age' (Hartford, Conn., 1873)by Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner, there is a piece,`Uncle Daniel's Apparition and Prayer', so similar to `The Power of Prayer'that I quote it almost entire. Uncle Dan'l (a Negro), his wife,his young mistress, and his two young masters were sitting on a logby the Mississippi River one moonlight night a-talking."Suddenly Uncle Dan'l exclaimed: `Chil'en, dah's sumfin a comin'!' "All crowded close together and every heart beat faster. "A deep coughing sound troubled the stillness, way toward a wooded capethat jutted into the stream a mile distant. All in an instanta fierce eye of fire shot out from behind the cape and senta long brilliant pathway quivering athwart the dusky water. The coughinggrew louder and louder, the glaring eye grew larger and still larger,glared wilder and still wilder. A huge shape developed itselfout of the gloom, and from its tall duplicate horns dense volumes of smoke,starred and spangled with sparks, poured out and went tumbling awayinto the farther darkness. Nearer and nearer the thing came,till its long sides began to glow with spots of lightwhich mirrored themselves in the river and attended the monsterlike a torch-light procession. "`What is it? Oh! what is it, Uncle Dan'l?' "With deep solemnity the answer came: "`It's de Almighty! Git down on yo' knees!' "It was not necessary to say it twice. They were all kneeling in a moment.And then while the mysterious coughing rose stronger and strongerand the threatening glare reached farther and wider, the negro's voicelifted up its supplications. "`O Lord, we's ben mighty wicked, an' we knows dat we 'zerve to goto de bad place, but, good Lord, deah Lord, we ain't ready yit,we ain't ready — let dese po' chil'en hab one mo' chance,jes' one mo' chance. Take de ole niggah if you's got to hab somebody. —Good Lord, good deah Lord, we don't know whah you's a gwine to,we don't know who you's got yo' eye on, but we knows by de way you's a comin',we know by de way you's a tiltin' along in yo' charyot o' fiahdat some po' sinner's a gwine to ketch it. But, good Lord, dese chil'endon't 'blong heah, dey's f'm Obedstown whah dey don't know nuffin,an' you knows, yo' own sef, dat dey ain't 'sponsible. An' deah Lord,good Lord, it ain't like yo' mercy, it ain't like yo' pity, it ain't likeyo' long-sufferin' lovin'-kindness for to take dis kind o' 'vantageo' sich little chil'en as dese is when dey's so many ornery grown folkschuck full o' cussedness dat wants roastin' down dah. O Lord,spah de little chil'en, don't tar de little chil'en away f'm dey frens,jes' let 'em off jes' dis once, and take it out'n de ole niggah.HEAH I IS, LORD, HEAH I IS! De ole niggah's ready, Lord, de ole ——' "The flaming and churning steamer was right abreast the party,and not twenty steps away. The awful thunder of a mud-valvesuddenly burst forth, drowning the prayer, and as suddenlyUncle Dan'l snatched a child under each arm and scoured into the woodswith the rest of the pack at his heels. And then, ashamed of himself,he halted in the deep darkness and shouted (but rather feebly): "`Heah I is, Lord, heah I is!' "There was a moment of throbbing suspense, and then,to the surprise and comfort of the party, it was plainthat the august presence had gone by, for its dreadful noises were receding.Uncle Dan'l headed a cautious reconnoissance in the direction of the log.Sure enough `The Lord' was just turning a point a short distance up the river,and while they looked, the lights winked out and the coughingdiminished by degrees and presently ceased altogether. "`H'wsh! Well now dey's some folks says dey ain't no 'ficiency in prah. There follows a discussion as to whether or not the prayer causedthe apparition to go by, of which of course Uncle Dan'l has no doubt.The apparition reappears and Uncle Dan'l betakes himself to prayer again,this time a long way off. I wrote the authors of `The Gilded Age' and asked the sourceof `Uncle Daniel's Apparition and Prayer'. Mr. Clemens kindly repliedthat he is the author of the piece, and that it is pure fictionwithout either history or tradition back of it. A comparison of the two stories shows some differences.The scene in the one case is the Alabama River, in the other the Mississippi.Moreover, the PERSONNEL is different. The Negro man in Twain's storyis about forty, in Lanier's he is old and has been blind for forty years.Another difference Mr. Sidney Lanier points out to his wifein his letter of October 1, 1874: "Cliff's and my `Power of Prayer'will come out in the Scribner's; probably in the `Etchings'at the end of the Magazine. I wrote thee what Dr. Holland saidanent its resemblance to something of Mark Twain's in plot.Day before yesterday I called and asked Dr. Holland what work of Mark Twain'she referred to. `Well,' said he, `I know nothing about it myself:I read the poem to a friend, and he suggested that the plotwas like something of Mark Twain's. But yesterday I read him your note,and he then recollected that in Twain's version it is God Almightythat is coming up the bend. In yours it is the Devil: — which certainlymakes a little difference!' and here he broke into a great laugh.`Yes,' I rejoined, `a difference toto coelo,' whereat he laughed again,and told me he had already ordered a check to be sent me for the poem." Mr. Clifford Lanier was born at Griffin, Ga., April 24, 1844, entered businessin Montgomery, Ala., at fourteen, subsequently attended collegefor a year and a half, and in May, 1862, joined his brotherin the Confederate Army. His soldier life has been detailedin connection with that of the poet. In October, 1864, Mr. Clifford Lanierwas assigned as signal officer to the blockade-runner `Talisman',which, after two successful runs to the Bermuda Islands,was wrecked in December, 1864. He escaped, however,and surrendered to the Federal authorities at the end of April, 1865.He has been successively lawyer, hotel manager, and superintendent of schoolsin Montgomery, Ala. For several years past he has been a directorof the Bank of Montgomery and other corporations. All the while, however,he has been deeply interested in literature and has writtensome graceful sketches and poems, among which may be mentioned the following:`Thorn-fruit' (1867), `Love and Loyalty at War' (1893),`Biding Tryst' (1894), prose; `Greatest of These is Love',`The American Philomel', `Keats and Fanny B——', `The Spirit of Art',`Antinous to Hadrian', `Time', `Tireless', `Tramp' (in Stedmanand Hutchinson's `Library of American Literature'), `Love and Life',`Edgar Allan Poe', etc. As stated in the `Introduction',the Chautauquans of 1898 have named themselves "The Laniers"in honor of Messrs. Sidney and Clifford Lanier. The motto of the classis the first line of Mr. Clifford Lanier's `Transformation'(`Sunday-school Times', Phila., June 30, 1894): "The humblest life that lives may be divine." 8. The complete `Poems' has `the' before `world', but Mrs. Lanierthinks the poet must have used `de' here as elsewhere. Rose-morals I. — Red Would that my songs might be [1] Soul, could'st thou bare thy breast Ah, dear my Rose, good-bye; II. — White Soul, get thee to the heart Of spirit grave yet light, Mulched with unsavory death, [21] ____Baltimore, 1875. Notes: Rose-morals Rose-morals in English literature probably begin withSir John Mandeville in the fourteenth century. At any rate,in the eighteenth chapter of his `Voyage and Travels' he professesto tell us the origin of red and white roses. A fair maid had beenunjustly accused of wrong-doing and doomed to die by fire."And as the woode began to brenne (burn) about hir, she made hir prayerto our Lorde as she was not gyltie of that thing, that he would helpe hirthat it might be knowne to all men. And whan (when) she had thus sayde,she entered the fyre and anone the fyre went out, and those braunchesthat were brenninge (burning) became red Roses and those braunchesthat were not kindled became white Rosiers (rose bushes) full of white roses,and those were the fyrst roses and rosyers that any man sawe,and so was the mayden saved through the grace of God." Thomas Carew has several rose-moralities, as `The True Beauty',beginning "He that loves a rosy cheek," and his exquisite`Red and White Roses': "Read in these roses the sad story — Rollicking Robert Herrick, too, draws his morals, now advising the virginsto make much of time, as in his `Gather ye rose-buds while ye may',now preaching a rarely pathetic sermon, as in `To Blossoms': "Fair pledges of a fruitful tree, "What, were ye born to be "But you are lovely leaves, where we —* `Palgrave', p. 89.— Much like this last piece in import, and scarcely inferior to it in execution,is `My life is like the summer rose' of Richard Henry Wilde,which is familiar to every one. Paul Hamilton Hayne's `The Red and the White Rose' (`Poems', pp. 231-232)is an interesting dialogue, which the author concludes by making the formeran "earthly queen" and the latter a "heaven-bound votaress". Mrs. Browning's `A Lay of the Early Rose' shows that we are not to strive"for the dole of praise." To ——, with a Rose I asked my heart to say [1] Then said my heart to me: This gift that learning shows; ____Philadelphia, 1876. Notes: To ——, with a Rose This poem was sent to Mrs. Gibson Peacock, of Philadelphia,who was one of Mr. Lanier's kindest and most appreciative friends.The poet's letters to Mr. and Mrs. Peacock have recently been publishedin `The Atlantic' (see `Thayer' in `Bibliography'). Of the numerous rose-compliments in English I can here specify but a few. "My Lady's presence makes the Roses red, Carew's compliment is hardly equal to his morals (`Gosse', p. 101): "Ask me no more where Jove bestows, Few better things have been written than this, the second stanza of Jonson's "I sent thee late a rosy wreath, Even more felicitous, perhaps, is Waller's `Go, lovely rose!' which is at oncea compliment and a moral (`Gosse', p. 134): "Go, lovely rose "Tell her that's young, "Small is the worth "Then die! that she Browning's `Women and Roses' should also be mentioned,and Mrs. Browning's translation of Sappho's lovely `Song of the Rose'. —* The fact that Jonson here translates a prose love-letter of Philostratus, the Greek sophist, may detract from the originality but not the beauty of his poem.— Uncle Jim's Baptist Revival Hymn By Sidney and Clifford Lanier SOLO. — Sin's rooster's crowed, Ole Mahster's riz, [1] Ole Mahster's blowed de mornin' horn, De Meth'dis team's done hitched; O fool, [11] De workmen's few an' mons'rous slow, De jay-bird squeal to de mockin'-bird: "Stop! [21] And de ole crow croak: "Don' work, no, no;" Lord, thunder us up to de plowin'-match, [31] ____1876. Notes: Uncle Jim's Baptist Revival Hymn I think that the following note, prefixed by the authors to their poem,sufficiently explains what is to me one of their best humorous pieces: "Not long ago a certain Georgia cotton-planter, driven to desperationby awaking each morning to find that the grass had quite outgrownthe cotton overnight, and was likely to choke it, in defiance ofhis lazy freedmen's hoes and ploughs, set the whole State in a laughby exclaiming to a group of fellow-sufferers: `It's all stuffabout Cincinnatus leaving the plough to go into politics "for patriotism";he was just a-runnin' from grass!' "This state of things — when the delicate young rootlets of the cottonare struggling against the hardier multitudes of the grass-suckers —is universally described in plantation parlance by the phrase `in the grass';and Uncle Jim appears to have found in it so much similarityto the condition of his own (`Baptis'') church, overrun, as it was,by the cares of this world, that he has embodied it in the refrainof a revival hymn such as the colored improvisator of the Southnot infrequently constructs from his daily surroundings.He has drawn all the ideas of his stanzas from the early morning phenomenaof those critical weeks when the loud plantation-horn is blownbefore daylight, in order to rouse all hands for a long day's fightagainst the common enemy of cotton-planting mankind. "In addition to these exegetical commentaries the Northern readerprobably needs to be informed that the phrase `peerten up' means substantially`to spur up', and is an active form of the adjective `peert'(probably a corruption of `pert'), which is so common in the South,and which has much the signification of `smart' in New England, as e.g.,a `peert' horse, in antithesis to a `sorry' — i.e., poor, mean, lazy one." The Mocking-bird Superb and sole, upon a plumed spray [1] ____1877. Notes: The Mocking-bird Besides this sonnet Mr. Lanier wrote a longer `To Our Mocking-bird',consisting of three sonnets, and `Bob', a charming account, in prose,of the life and death of the bird apostrophized. In his `Birds and Poets' (Boston, 1877), Mr. John Burroughs says Roughly speaking, the poems may be divided into two classes —first those that, as in the Indian legend cited below,make out the mocking-bird only or chiefly a thief and thing of evil,and second those that find him, though a borrower, original and great.The former view, fortunately upheld by few, is strikingly set forthin Granald's `The Mock-bird and the Sparrow'. After describing minutelythe various songs of the mocking-bird and emphasizingthat they all come from other birds, the author gives the dialoguebetween the mock-bird and the sparrow. The former taunted the latterand insisted on his singing; and "The sparrow cock'd a knowing eye, But the latter view is espoused by most of the writers mentioned,notably and nobly by Drake, the Haynes, the Laniers, Lee, Meek, and Thompson,the poet-laureate of the mocking-bird, whose poems should be readby every lover of nature and especially of the mocking-bird.As Thompson's tributes are all too long for quotation, I give here Meek's,in the hope that I may rescue it from the long oblivion of an out-of-print.My attention was called to it by my friend, Dr. C. H. Ross,to whom every reader will be indebted along with myself. It runs as follows: "From the vale, what music ringing, "See him, swinging in his glory, "Why is't thus, this sylvan Petrarch "Bird of music, wit and gladness, As is well known, the mocking-bird is often called the American nightingale.As to their relative merits as singers, here is the judgment of onethat has heard both birds, Professor James A. Harrison (`The Critic',New York, 2. 284, December 13, 1884): "Well, it is my honest opinionthat philomel will not compare with the singer of the Southin sweetness, versatility, passion, or lyrical beauty. The mocking-bird— better the echo-bird, with a voice compounded of all sweet sounds,as the blossom of the Chinese olive is compounded of all sweet scents —is a pure lyrist; its throat is a lyre — Aeolian, capricious, many-stringed;as its name suggests, it is a polyglot mime, a bird linguist,a feathered Mezzofanti singing all the bird languages; yet over and aboveall this, with a something of its own that cannot be described."The mocking-bird speaks for himself in Thompson's `To an English Nightingale': "What do you think of me? . . . . . "He This self-appreciation is confirmed by the greatest authority on birds,Audubon: "There is probably no bird in the world that possessesall the musical qualifications of this king of song, who has derived allfrom Nature's self. Yes, reader, all!" It will be interesting and instructive to compare the tributesto the mocking-bird with Keats's `Ode to a Nightingale',Shelley's `To a Skylark', and Wordsworth's `To the Skylark'. Aside from Audubon's `Birds of America' and Ridgway's 14. Wilde compares the mocking-bird to Yorick and to Jacques;Meek, to Petrarch; Lanier, to Keats, in `To Our Mocking-bird',as does Wm. H. Hayne: "Each golden note of music greets Song of the Chattahoochee Out of the hills of Habersham, [1] All down the hills of Habersham, [11] High o'er the hills of Habersham, [21] And oft in the hills of Habersham, [31] But oh, not the hills of Habersham, [41] ____1877. Notes: Song of the Chattahoochee The Chattahoochee River rises in Habersham County, in northeast Georgia,and, intersecting Hall County, flows southwestward to West Point,then southward until it unites with the Flint Riverat the southwestern extremity of Georgia. The Chattahoocheeis about five hundred miles long, and small steamboats can ascend itto Columbus, Ga. Hon. Henry R. Jackson, of Savannah, Ga.,late Minister to Mexico, has an interesting poem `To the Chattahoochee River',in his `Tallulah and Other Poems' (Savannah, Ga., 1850);and Mr. M. V. Moore, in his poem, `Southern Rivers' (`Harper', 66. 464,February, 1883), has a paragraph on the rivers of Georgia,in which he speaks of "the sandy Chattahoochee". In the `Introduction' (pp. xxxi [Part III], xliv, xlvii [Part IV])I have spoken of this `Song' as Lanier's most finished nature poem,as the most musical of his productions. "The music of a songeasily eludes all analysis and may be dissipated by a critic's breath,but let us try to catch the means by which the effect is in part produced.In five stanzas, of ten lines each, alliteration occurs in allsave twelve lines. In eleven of these twelve lines internal rhyme occurs,sometimes joining the parts of a line, sometimes uniting successive lines.Syzygy is used for the same purpose. Of the letters occurring in the poemabout one-fifth are liquids and about one-twelfth are sibilants.The effect of the whole is musical beyond description.It sings itself and yet nowhere sacrifices the thought" (Kent). Another way to test the beauty of `The Song of the Chattahoochee'is to compare it with other kindred poems. There are many stream-songsin English, several of which are very pretty, but there is, I think,but one rival to our `Song', and that is Tennyson's `The Brook'.Even so careful a critic as Mr. Ward says that `The Song of the Chattahoochee'"strikes a higher key, and is scarcely less musical." It will be instructive,too, to compare Lanier's poem with Southey's `The Cataract of Lodore'(see `Gates', p. 25), which exhibits considerable talent, if not inspiration;with P. H. Hayne's `The Meadow Brook', which is simple and sweet;and with Wordsworth's `Brook! whose society the Poet seeks',which is grave and elevated. Professor Kent suggests as interesting analoguesPoe's `Ulalume' and Buchanan Read's `Bay of Naples'; and, if the studentcares to extend his list, he should read the stream-songs by Bryant,Mary Ainge De Vere (`Century', 21. 283, December, 1891),Longfellow, Weir Mitchell (`Atlantic', 65. 629, May, 1890),Clinton Scollard (`Lippincott', 50. 226, August, 1892), etc., etc. The Revenge of Hamish It was three slim does and a ten-tined buck in the bracken lay; [1] Then Nan got a-tremble at nostril; she was the daintiest doe; Full high in the breeze, and he stood as if Death had the form of a deer; Then Alan the huntsman sprang over the hillock, the hounds shot by, For at dawn of that day proud Maclean of Lochbuy to the hunt had waxed wild, So gayly he paced with the wife and the child to his chosen stand; [21] Now hard-fortuned Hamish, half blown of his breath with the height So the deer darted lightly by Hamish and bounded away to the burn. And his eye sat back in the socket, and shrunken the eyeballs shone, "Three does and a ten-tined buck made out," spoke Hamish, full mild, I had killed if the gluttonous kern had not wrought me So Hamish made bare, and took him his strokes; at the last he smiled. Then the clansmen departed, by this path and that; and over the hill But look! red Hamish has risen; quick about and about turns he. Now the mother drops breath; she is dumb, and her heart goes dead for a space, Not a breath's time for asking; an eye-glance reveals Fast Hamish back from the brink!" — and ever she flies up the steep, Now a faintness falls on the men that run, and they all stand still. On a sudden he turns; with a sea-hawk scream, and a gibe, and a song, Then Maclean he set hardly his tooth to his lip that his tooth was red, "Say yea! — Let them lash ME, Hamish?" — "Nay!" — With never a word, till presently downward he jerked to the earth. And no man spake beside Hamish; he counted each stroke with a song. And there as the motherly arms stretched out with the thanksgiving prayer — And sprang with the child in his arms from the horrible height in the sea, And gazed hungrily o'er, and the blood from his back ____Baltimore, 1878. Notes: The Revenge of Hamish For an appreciation of this fine poem see `Introduction',pp. xlv, xlvii [Part IV], Mr. J. R. Tait, a friend with whom Mr. Lanierdiscussed `The Revenge of Hamish', kindly writes me that the authortook the plot from William Black's novel, `Macleod of Dare'.In chapter iii. Macleod, of Castle Dare, Mull, tells the storyto his London entertainer; but, as the story of the novelis identical with that of the poem, it need not be given here.The novel, I should add, gives the name of the chieftain only,though, as it has a Hamish in another connection, it doubtless gave Lanierthis name for the henchman. Previous to the reception of Mr. Tait's letterI supposed that Lanier had borrowed his plot from a poem by Charles Mackay,`Maclaine's Child, A Legend of Lochbuy, Mull', which in plotis identical with Lanier's poem, except that the former beginswith the speech of the flogged henchman, here named Evan,and ends by telling us that the bodies were found and that of Evan was hangedon a gallows-tree. The poem is too long for quotation, but may be foundin any edition of Mackay or in Garrett's `One Hundred Choice Selections:Number Nine' (Phila., 1887). 17. The Macleans, for centuries one of the most powerful of Scottish clans,have since the fourteenth century lived in Mull, one of the largestof the Hebrides Islands. The two leading branches of the clanwere the Macleans of Dowart and the Macleans of Lochbuy,both taking their names from the seats of their castles. The Lochbuy familynow spells its name MacLAINE. For a detailed history of the clansee Keltie's `History of the Scottish Highlands, Highland Clans', etc.(London, 1885). Interesting books about Mull and the Hebrides are:Johnson's `A Journey to the Hebrides' and Robert Buchanan's `The Hebrid Isles'(London, 1883). Instructive, too, is Cummin's `Around Mull'(`The Atlantic Monthly', 16. 11-19, 167-176, July, August, 1865). The Marshes of Glynn Glooms of the live-oaks, beautiful-braided and woven [1] Beautiful glooms, soft dusks in the noon-day fire, — O braided dusks of the oak and woven shades of the vine, Oh, now, unafraid, I am fain to face Sinuous southward and sinuous northward the shimmering band Oh, what is abroad in the marsh and the terminal sea? [61] Ye marshes, how candid and simple and nothing-withholding and free As the marsh-hen secretly builds on the watery sod, [71] And the sea lends large, as the marsh: lo, out of his plenty the sea How still the plains of the waters be! And now from the Vast of the Lord will the waters of sleep ____Baltimore, 1878. Notes: The Marshes of Glynn Although Dr. Callaway noted in his preface the importance of this poem,he did not include it for lack of space. This would seem to indicatethat when he published these "Selected Poems" in 1895,"The Marshes of Glynn" had not yet achieved its later prominenceas the greatest of Sidney Lanier's poems — as now seems to be the opinion.The setting of the poem is the salt marshes surroundingthe coastal city of Brunswick, Georgia, which is in Glynn County — an areawell deserving of the fame Lanier has given it — and it was intendedas one installment in a series of "Hymns of the Marshes", of which four poemswere completed. The text is taken from the 1916 edition of "Poems of Sidney Lanier". William Hayes Ward wrote of this poem: "How naturally his large faith in Godfinds expression in his `Marshes of Glynn'." Edwin Mims, in his biography of Sidney Lanier, concludes by quoting this poem. "His best poems move to the cadence of a tune. . . . Sometimes, as inthe `Marshes of Glynn' and in the best parts of `Sunrise', there isa cosmic rhythm that is like unto the rhythmic beating of the heart of God,of which Poe and Lanier have written eloquently." And later continues: "Indeed, if one had to rely upon one poem to keep alive the fame of Lanier,he could single out `The Marshes of Glynn' with assurancethat there is something so individual and original about it,and that, at the same time, there is such a roll and range of verse in it,that it will surely live not only in American poetry but in English.Here the imagination has taken the place of fancy, the effortto do great things ends in victory, and the melody of the poem correspondsto the exalted thought. It has all the strong points of `Sunrise',with but few of its limitations. There is something ofWhitman's virile imagination and Emerson's high spiritualitycombined with the haunting melody of Poe's best work. Written in 1878,when Lanier was in the full exercise of all his powers,it is the best expression of his genius and one of the fewgreat American poems. "The background of the poem — as of `Sunrise' — is the forest,the coast and the marshes near Brunswick, Georgia. Early in lifeLanier had been thrilled by this wonderful natural scenery,and later visits had the more powerfully impressed his imagination.He is the poet of the marshes as surely as Bryant is of the forests,or Wordsworth of the mountains. "The poet represents himself as having spent the day in the forestand coming at sunset into full view of the length and the breadthand the sweep of the marshes. The glooms of the live-oaksand the emerald twilights of the `dim sweet woods, of the dear dark woods,'have been as a refuge from the riotous noon-day sun. More than that,in the wildwood privacies and closets of lone desire he has knownthe passionate pleasure of prayer and the joy of elevated thought.His spirit is grown to a lordly great compass within, — he is readyfor what Wordsworth calls a `god-like hour'." Mr. Callaway also treats the poem in Part III of the `Introduction'. Remonstrance Opinion, let me alone: I am not thine. [1] Oh let me love my Lord more fathom deep The tears I weep by day and bitter night, So fare I forth to feast: I sit beside Then, hard a-hungered for my brother's grace Debarred of banquets that my heart could make Assassin! Thief! Opinion, 'tis thy work. Deliverer Christ; thou rack'st the souls of men; — Thou base-born Accident of time and place — I would thou left'st me free, to live with love, ____Baltimore, 1878-9. Notes: Remonstrance This is the first and the greatest of the `Street-cries':see the introductory note to `Life and Song'. For an interpretation of the poem see `Introduction', pp. xxix [Part III],xlv, xlvii [Part IV]. 26, 33. Amusing illustrations of such intolerance may be foundin `Jack-knife and Brambles' (Nashville, 1893), by Bishop Atticus G. Haygood,of the Methodist Church, South. One brother, we are told (p. 278),objected to hearing Bishop Haygood in 1859 because of his wearing a beard;while another (p. 281), along in the thirties, voted against licensingBishop George F. Pierce because his hair was "combed back from his forehead"! 46. For an account of Socrates, the Greek philosopher, poisoned in 399 B.C.,see Xenophon's `Memorabilia' and Plato's dialogues. 47. See St. Matthew 27:20. 54. For the burning of Nicholas Ridley, an English Bishop,on October 16, 1555, see Green's `Shorter History of England'.Michael Servetus, a Spanish scientific and theological writer,was burned as a heretic at Geneva, October 27, 1553. Opposition Of fret, of dark, of thorn, of chill, [1] The lute's fixt fret, that runs athwart The dark hath many dear avails; Bleeding with thorns of petty strife, What grace may lie within the chill Of fret, of dark, of thorn, of chill, [21] ____Baltimore, 1879-80. Notes: Opposition As an introduction to this poem I quote a sentence from Dr. Gates'sexcellent essay: "As we look at the circumstances of his life,let us carry with us the strains of this poem, which interpretsthe use of crosses, interferences, and attempted thwartings of one's purpose;for the ethical value of Lanier's life and writings can be fully understoodonly by remembering how much he overcame and how heroically he persistedin manly work in his chosen art through years of such broken healthas would have driven most men to the inert, self-indulgent life of an invalid.The superb power of will which he displayed is a lesson as valuableas the noble poems which it illustrates and enforces." Marsh Song — At Sunset Over the monstrous shambling sea, [1] Over the humped and fishy sea, Over the huge and huddling sea, [11] ____Baltimore, 1879-80. Notes: Marsh Song — At Sunset At the first reading, no doubt, this song appears indistinct, though poetical.On a second reading, however, with Shakespeare's `Tempest' fresh in mind,it seems, as it is, highly artistic; and we wonder at the happy usemade of the Shakespearean characters: the gracious, forgiving Prospero,the rightful Duke of Milan; Antonio, his usurping brother,forgiven notwithstanding; Caliban, the savage, deformed, fish-like slave;and Ariel, the ministering spirit of the air. With `At Sunset' compare Lanier's `Evening Song', another and a more agreeablesunset picture. A Ballad of Trees and the Master Into the woods my Master went, [1] Out of the woods my Master went, ____Baltimore, November, 1880. Notes: A Ballad of Trees and the Master In the `Introduction' (p. xxxi ff. [Part III]) I have tried to showthe intensity and the breadth of Lanier's love of nature in general.President Gates gives a separate section to Lanier's loveof trees and plant-life; and, after quoting some lineson the soothing and inspiring companionship of trees,thus speaks of our Ballad: "This ministration of trees to a mind and heart`forspent with shame and grief' finds its culmination in the pathetic linesupon that olive-garden near Jerusalem, which to those of uswho have sat within its shade must always seem the most sacred spot on earth.The almost mystic exaltation of the power of poetic sympathywhich inspired these intense lines, `Into the Woods my Master went',may impair their religious effect for many devout souls.But to many others this short poem will express most wonderfullythat essential human-heartedness in the Son of Man, our Divine Saviour,which made Him one with us in His need of the quiet,sympathetic ministrations of nature — perhaps the heart of the reasonwhy this olive-grove was `the place where He was wont to go' for prayer."See St. Luke 22:39. For Lanier's other poems on Christ see `Introduction',p. xxxvii f. [Part III]. Sunrise In my sleep I was fain of their fellowship, fain [1] I have waked, I have come, my beloved! I might not abide: Tell me, sweet burly-bark'd, man-bodied Tree O cunning green leaves, little masters! like as ye gloss Ye lispers, whisperers, singers in storms, My gossip, the owl, — is it thou . . . . . Reverend Marsh, low-couched along the sea, The tide's at full: the marsh with flooded streams Oh, what if a sound should be made! But no: it is made: list! somewhere, — mystery, where? Now a dream of a flame through that dream of a flush is uprolled: Yet now the dew-drop, now the morning gray, [131] Not slower than Majesty moves, for a mean and a measure O Artisan born in the purple, — Workman Heat, — Thou chemist of storms, whether driving the winds a-swirl Oh, never the mast-high run of the seas ____Baltimore, December, 1880. Notes: Sunrise In the words of Mrs. Lanier, "`Sunrise', Mr. Lanier's latest completed poem,was written while his sun of life seemed fairly at the setting,and the hand which first pencilled its lines had not strengthto carry nourishment to the lips." See `Introduction', p. xviii [Part I].Lanier has two other poems on the same theme, both short:`A Sunrise Song' and `Between Dawn and Sunrise' (entered under `Marsh Hymns'). As already pointed out (`Introduction', pp. xxxi [Part III], xlvii [Part IV]),`Sunrise' shows in a powerful way the delicacy and the comprehensivenessof Lanier's love for nature. True, as I have elsewhere stated(`Introduction', p. xlvi [Part IV]), the poem has some serious limitations,more I think than has `The Marshes of Glynn'; but, despite its shortcomings,`Sunrise' is from an absolute stand-point a great poem;while, if we consider the circumstances under which it was produced,it is, in the words of Professor Kent, "a world-marvel". Aside from the numerous unapproachable snatches in Shakespeare,*I know of nothing on the subject in English literaturecomparable to `Sunrise'. Mr. W. W. Story's `Sunrise' is perhapsthe closest parallel, and yet it is far inferior to Lanier's,as every reader of the two will admit. If one wishes to makefurther comparisons, he may find sunrise poems in the following authors:Blake, Cowper, Emerson, Hood, Keats, Longfellow, Southey, Thompson,Willis, etc. I may add that an interesting, though superficial articleon `The Poetry of Sunrise and Sunset' may be found in`Chambers's Edinburgh Journal', 22, 234, October 7, 1854. —* Among others I may cite the following passages: "Hark! hark! the lark at heaven's gate sings," in `Cymbeline', 2, 3; "But look the morn in russet mantle clad in `Hamlet', 1, 1; "Night's candles are burnt out, and jocund day in `Romeo and Juliet', 3, 5; and "Full many a glorious morning have I seen" etc., `Sonnet xxxiii'.— 3, 13-14. See `Introduction', p. xxxii [Part III], and compare l. 26. 39-53. See `Introduction', p. xxxiii [Part III]. 42. I had made the comparison between Lanier and St. Francisbefore reading Dr. Gates's essay on Lanier, and was delighted to findmy judgment confirmed by so competent a critic. Dr. Gates is quite emphatic:"Since St. Francis, no soul has seemed so heavily overchargedwith this feeling of brotherhood for all created things."`The Canticle of the Sun', otherwise known as `The Song of the Creatures',may be found in metrical form in Mrs. Oliphant's life of St. Francis(New York, 1870) and in prose in Sabatier's (Scribners, New York, 1894). 54. Lanier has an `Owl against Robin'. 57. See `Introduction', p. xli [Part IV]. 80-85. See `Introduction', p. xliii [Part IV]. 86-152. See `Introduction', p. xlvii [Part IV]. Mr. F. F. Browne saysthat in lyric sweetness ll. 86-97 recall the best of Keats and Shelley. 114-115. See `Introduction', p. xliv [Part IV]. 127. Lanier has a poem entitled `The Bee'. 134-136. See `Introduction', p. xliii [Part IV]. 181. Compare Mrs. Easter's tribute, `Lit with the Sun'. 189-192. See `Introduction', p. xxi [Part I], and compare Cowdin's tribute,`Hopeset and Sunrise', and the closing stanza of Hamlin Garland's: "While heart's blood ebbed at every breath Bibliography I. Collected Prose Works Tiger-lilies: A Novel. 16mo, pp. v, 252. Hurd & Houghton, New York, 1867. Florida: Its Scenery, Climate, and History. 12mo, pp. 336. The Boy's Froissart. Being Sir John Froissart's Chronicles of Adventure, The Science of English Verse. Crown 8vo, pp. xv, 315. The Boy's King Arthur. Being Sir Thomas Malory's History of King Arthurand his Knights of the Round Table. Edited for Boys. Crown 8vo,pp. xlviii, 404. Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1880. The Boy's Mabinogion. Being the Earliest Welsh Tales of King Arthurin the famous Red Book of Hergest. Edited for Boys. Crown 8vo,pp. xxiv, 378. Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1881. The Boy's Percy. Being Old Ballads of War, Adventure, and Love, The English Novel and the Principles of its Development. Crown 8vo, pp. 293. II. Collected Poetical Works Poems. Pp. 94. J. B. Lippincott & Co., Philadelphia, 1877. Poems of Sidney Lanier, Edited by his Wife, with a Memorialby William Hayes Ward. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1884,252 pp., 12mo. III. Uncollected Prose Pieces Three Waterfalls: `Scott's Magazine' (Atlanta, Ga.), August, September, 1867. Address before the Furlow Masonic Female College (Ga.), June 30, 1869: Confederate Memorial Address at Macon, Ga., April 26, 1870:`Macon Daily Telegraph' of April 27, 1870, and reprinted in samefor April 27, 1887. Retrospects and Prospects: `Southern Magazine' (Baltimore) 8. 283-290,446-456, March, April, 1871. Nature-Metaphors: `Southern Magazine' 10. 172-182, February, 1872. San Antonio de Bexar: `Southern Magazine' 13. 83-99, 138-152, Peace: `Southern Magazine' 15. 406-410, October, 1874. Review of Hayne's Poems: `Southern Magazine', 1874. The Ocklawaha in May: `Lippincott's Magazine' (Philadelphia) 16. 403-413, St. Augustine in April: `Lippincott's Magazine' 16. 537-550, November, 1875. Sketches of India, published anonymously: `Lippincott's Magazine' 17. 37-51,172-183, 283-301, 409-427, January-April, 1876. Defence of Centennial Cantata: `The Tribune' (New York), 1876. Musical Festival in Baltimore: `The Sun' (Baltimore), May 28, 29, 30, 1878. Criticism of Rubinstein's Ocean Symphony: `The Sun' (Baltimore), The Story of a Proverb: `Lippincott's Magazine' 23. 109-113, January, 1879. Letter to Mr. J. F. D. Lanier, a banker of New York,giving an account of the Laniers in Europe and of their coming to America:privately printed, Baltimore, April 2, 1879, pp. 17. A Fairy Tale for Grown People: `St. Nicholas Magazine', 1879. The Orchestra of To-day: `Scribner's Monthly' (New York) 19. 897-904, The New South: `Scribner's Monthly' 20. 840-851. October, 1880. Bob: `The Independent' (New York) 34. 1-3, August 3, 1882. Moral Purpose in Art: `The Century Magazine' (New York) 4. 131-137, Two Letters to Bayard Taylor: Taylor (M. H.) and Scudder's The Legend of St. Leonor, a Fragment from an Unfinished Lectureon "The Relations of Poetry and Science": `The Independent' 37. 1627,December 17, 1885. The Happy Soul's Address to the Dead Body, from Shakespeare A Great Man Wanted, Extract from Letter of November 15, 1874,to Judge L. E. Bleckley, of Georgia: `The Acorn' (Towson, Md.), June, 1887;reprinted in `The Critic' (New York) 7. 309, June 18, 1887. From Bacon to Beethoven, published anonymously: `Lippincott's Magazine'41. 643-655, May, 1888. Chaucer and Shakespeare: `The Independent' 43. 1337-1338, 1371-1372, Chaucer and Shakespeare Compared: `The Independent' 43. 1401-1402, What I Know about Flowers, a S. S. address delivered about 1868,but first published in `The Sunday-school Times' (Philadelphia) 33. 739,November 21, 1891. How to Read Chaucer: `The Independent' 43. 1748, November 26, 1891. Blood-red Flower of War, an extract from `Tiger-lilies' (pp. 115-121): Letters to Mr. and Mrs. Gibson Peacock, from January 26, 1875,to June 1, 1880, edited by Wm. R. Thayer: `The Atlantic Monthly' (Boston)74. 14-28, 181-193, July, August, 1894. IV. Uncollected Poems Laughter in the Senate: `The Round Table' (New York), 1868. Civil Rights: `The Herald' (Atlanta, Ga.), 1874. Songs Against Death (five stanzas, the last fragmentary): One in Two: `Century Magazine' 12. 417, July, 1887. Two in One: `Century Magazine' 12. 417, July, 1887. To "The White Flower" of The English Novel, written in 1878,but printed in 1890 by L. Prang (Boston) on an illustrated Christmas Card. On the Receipt of a Jar of Marmalade, written for Mrs. C. N. Hawkins in 1877,but printed in her husband's paper, `The New Castle (Va.) Record',April 11, 1891. The Lord's Romance of Time, an Outline: `Sunday-school Times' To Lucie, written on St. Valentine's Day, 1880, published in `From Dixie', V. Poems in Anthologies Blackman, O.: see `Lawrence, W. M.' Hutchinson, Ellen M.: see `Stedman, E. C.' Lawrence (W. M.) and Blackman (O.): `The Riverside Song Book' (Boston, 1893)has `Baby Charley' (p. 91) and `May the Maiden' (p. 97), both set to music. Putnam, S. A. Brock: `The Poetry of America' (New York, 1894)has `Life and Song', `Nirvana', `Ballad of Trees and the Master',and `Sunrise'. Roberts, C. G. D.: `Poems of Wild Life' (London, 1888)has `The Revenge of Hamish' (pp. 57-62). Sladen, Douglas: `Younger American Poets' (New York, 1891)gives (pp. 131-145) `Sunrise', `The Marshes of Glynn',`Song of the Chattahoochee', `A Ballad of Trees and the Master',an extract from `The Symphony', and `The Crystal'. Stedman (E. C.) and Hutchinson (Ellen M.): `A Library of American Literature' VI. Criticisms* of Lanier's Life and Works * Unless the title of the criticism is given, the article treats American Youth (Chicago): 3. 102. Appleton's Annual Cyclopaedia (New York): 1881, p. 685: `Obituary'. Black, G. D.: `The Antiochian' (Yellow Springs, O.) 2: 4. 4-6, Black, G. D.: `Belford's Magazine' (Chicago) 6. 187-190, January, 1891. Blackman, O.: see `Lawrence' under `V'. Boykin, Laurette N.: `Home Life of Sidney Lanier', Atlanta, Ga., 1889, 12 pp. Browne, F. F.: `The Dial' (Chicago) 5. 244-246, January, 1885. Browne, Wm. H.: `Memorial Address' before the Johns Hopkins University, Browne, Wm. H.: `Letter at the Unveiling of a Bust of the Poetat Macon, Ga.', October 17, 1890, in `The Atlanta (Ga.) Constitution'of October 19, 1890. Browne, Wm. H.: `From Dixie' (Richmond, Va., 1893), pp. 40-51. Buck, Dudley: Music to Lanier's `Centennial Cantata'. Buck, Dudley: `Sunset', music to Lanier's `Evening Song'. Buckham, J.: `An Account of the Hopkins Memorial Meetingof February 3, 1888', `Literary World' (Boston) 19. 56-57, February 18, 1888. Burton, R. E.: `An Account of the Hopkins Memorial Meetingof February 3, 1888', `The Critic' (New York), 9. 63-64, February 11, 1888;also in Gilman's `Memorial of Sidney Lanier', pp. 47-50. Burton, Richard E.: `Lanier Bibliography', in Gilman's Calvert, G. H.: `The Golden Age', June 12, 1875. Carmichael, Mary: `A May Song', music to Lanier's `Song for the Jacquerie'. Century Magazine (New York): 1. 475, January, 1882: `Boy's Mabinogion'. Chamberlain, D. H.: `The New Englander' (New Haven, Conn.) 44. 227-238, Coleman, C. W., Jr.: `Homes of Some Southern Authors IV.', Critic, The (New York): 3. 3-4, January 3, 1885: `Poems';9. 97, February 28, 1888: `Professor J. H. Gilmore's Lecture on Lanier';9. 224, May 5, 1888; 9. 245, May 19, 1888; 15. 130, March 7, 1891;16. 197, October 17, 1891: `Poems' (ed. of 1891); 20. 95, August 5, 1893:`Professor W. D. McClintock's Lecture on Lanier'. Cummings, Miss M. A.: `Catholic Mirror' (Baltimore), May 7, 1892. Dewey, T. E.: `Address before the Kansas Academy of Language and Literature',at Baker University, Baldwin, April 7, 1892, 34 pp. Dial, The (Chicago): 2. 182-3, December, 1881: `Boy's Mabinogion';3. 176, December, 1882: `Boy's Percy'; 4. 40, June, 1883. Fiske, John: see `Wilson, J. G.' Gates, M. E.: `Sidney Lanier's Moral Earnestness', `The Critic' 3. 227, Gates, M. E.: `Presbyterian Review' (New York), 8. 669-701, October, 1887;also in pamphlet form; summarized in Sladen's `Younger American Poets'(pp. 635-644). Gates, M. E.: `On the Ethical Influence of Lanier', in Gilman's `Memorial',pp. 31-36. Gilder, R. W.: `Letter to President Gilman', in latter's `Memorial',pp. 27-29. Gilman, D. C.: `Our Continent' (Chicago), February, 1882. Gilman, D. C. (ed.): `A Memorial of Sidney Lanier' (Baltimore, 1888), 52 pp. Gilman, D. C.: `Letter at the Unveiling of a Bust of the Poet at Macon, Ga.', Gosse, Edmund: `Questions at Issue', London, 1893, pp. 78-81. Hankins, V. W.: `Southern Bivouac' (Louisville, Ky.), 2. 760-61, May, 1887. Harper's Magazine (New York): 54. 617, March, 1877: `Poems' (1877 ed.);60. 474, February, 1880: `Boy's Froissart'; 61. 796-97, October, 1880:`Science of English Verse'; 62. 315, January, 1881: `Boy's King Arthur';64. 316, January, 1882: `Boy's Mabinogion'; 66. 316, January, 1883:`Boy's Percy'; 67. 798-99, October, 1883: `The English Novel'. Harris, Joel Chandler: `The Atlanta (Ga.) Constitution'of September 12, 1881. Harris, J. C.: `Letter at Unveiling of a Bust of the Poet at Macon, Ga.', Hawthorne (J.) and Lemmon (L.): `American Literature', Boston, 1893,pp. 276-77. Hayne, Paul H.: `A Poet's Letters to a Friend', `The Critic' 5. 77-78, 89-90, Higginson, T. W.: `The Chautauquan' (Meadville, Pa.) 7. 416-418, April, 1887. Higginson, T. W.: `Women and Men', Boston, 1888, chap. 58. Hill, Mrs. K.: `Marie', music to Lanier's `Song for the Jacquerie', Hill, W. B.: `Address in Presenting Bust of the Poet to City of Macon, Ga.', Hubner, Chas. W.: `The American', Atlanta, Ga., November 29, 1888. Kent, C. W.: `A Study of Lanier's Poems, in Publications ofthe Modern Language Association' (Baltimore) 7: 2. 33-63, April-June, 1892. Kirk, J. F.: `A Supplement to Allibone's Dictionary of English Literature' Kirkus, Wm.: `American Literary Churchman', October, 1881. Lanier, Charles: `Letter at Unveiling of Poet's Bust at Macon, Ga.', Lanier, Clifford: `Letter at Unveiling of Poet's Bust at Macon, Ga.', Lawrence, W. M.: see under `V'. Lemmon, L.: see `Hawthorne'. Lind, W. Murdoch: `Sidney Lanier's Library', `The Daily News' (Baltimore), Link, S. A.: `New England Magazine' (Boston) 10. 14-19, March, 1894. Literary World, The (Boston): 6. 116, January, 1876: `Florida';7. 103, December, 1876: `Poems' (Lippincott ed.); 11. 227, July 3, 1880:`Science of English Verse'; 11. 441, December 4, 1880: `Boy's King Arthur';12. 215, June 18, 1881: `Florida'; 12. 449, December 3, 1881:`Boy's Mabinogion'; 14. 204-205, June 30, 1883: `English Novel';16. 40-41, February 7, 1885: `Poems'; 16. 350-352, April 10, 1885: `Poems'. Lowell, James Russell: `Letter to President Gilman' in latter's `Memorial',p. 25. Macmechan, A.: `The Varsity' (Toronto), March 3, 1888. Marble, E.: `Cottage Hearth' (Boston), 4. 141-142, June, 1877. Morris, H. S.: `The Poetry of S. L.', `The American' (Philadelphia), Nation, The (New York): 31. 310-311, October 28, 1880:`Science of English Verse'; 33. 216, September 15, 1881;33. 994, November 17, 1881; 35. 468, November 30, 1882: `Boy's Percy';37. 38, July 12, 1883: `English Novel'; 39. 528, December 18, 1884: `Poems';46. 51-52, February 9, 1888; 53. 297, October 15, 1891: `Poems' (1891 ed.). Newell, A. C.: `Lanier's Life at Oglethorpe College', New Englander (New Haven, Conn.): 39. 566, July, 1880: Penn, A.: `S. L. on the English Novel', `Century Magazine', 5. 957-958, Pitts, W. A.: `Wofford College Journal' (Spartanburg, S.C.) 4. 307-312, Poet-lore (Philadelphia): 2. 303, 1890; 3. 369, 1891. Putnam, S. A. Brock: `The Poetry of America', New York, 1894,has a short Sketch of Lanier. Richardson, Charles F.: `American Literature' (1607-1885), 2 vols., Roberts, Chas. G. D.: `St. John (N. B.) Globe', April 25, 1885. Roberts, Chas. G. D. (ed.): `Poems of Wild Life', London, 1888,has a short sketch of Lanier. Roberts, C. G. D.: `Letter at Unveiling of Poet's Bust at Macon, Ga.', Rutherford, Mildred: `American Authors', Atlanta, Ga., 1894, pp. 368-375. Scott, W. J.: `Quarterly Review of M. E. Church, South' (Nashville), Scribner's Monthly (New York): 20. 473-4, July, 1880: Semple, Patty B.: `Southern Bivouac' (Louisville) 2. 661-7, April, 1887. Sladen, Douglas: `Some Younger American Poets I.', `The Independent' Sladen, Douglas: `Younger American Poets', New York, 1891,pp. xxvi-xxviii, 635-655: a slightly expanded form of the preceding.See, too, `Gates' and `Turnbull'. Sladen, Douglas: `The American Rossetti', `Literary World' (London),pp. 378-9, November 17, 1893. Smyth, A. H.: `American Literature', Philadelphia, 1889, p. 132. Spann, Minnie: `Sidney Lanier's Youth, S. L.'s Manhood', Spectator, The (London): 65. 828-9, December 6, 1890. Stedman, E. C.: `Letter to President Gilman', pp. 12-14 of Browne's Stedman, E. C.: `The Critic' (New York), 1. 298, 1881. Stedman, E. C.: `Poets of America', Boston, 1885, pp. 449-451. Stedman, E. C.: `Letter to President Gilman' in latter's `Memorial',pp. 25-27. Stedman (E. C.) and Hutchinson (Ellen M.): `Library of American Literature'(New York, 1891), vol. xi., 542, gives brief sketchesof Sidney and Clifford Lanier. Stoddard, F. H.: `Review of The English Novel', `New Englander' Tabb, J. B.: `Sidney Lanier's Last Lines', `The Atlanta (Ga.) Constitution'of October 19, 1890. Tait, John R.: `Lippincott's Magazine' (Phila.) 40. 723-724, November, 1887. Taylor, Bayard: `The Tribune' (New York), 1876. Taylor (M. H.) and Scudder's `Life and Letters of Bayard Taylor',vol. 2. 669-723, has several letters from B. T. to S. L. Thayer, W. R.: `The Independent' (New York), 1883; March, 1884; Thayer, W. R.: `The American' (Phila.) December 20, 1884; February 18, 1888. Thayer, W. R. (ed.): `Letters of Sidney Lanier' [to Mr. and Mrs. Tolman, A. H.: `Lanier's Science of English Verse', in Gilman's `Memorial',pp. 37-45. Travelers' Record, The (Hartford, Conn.): October, 1885: Turnbull, Mrs. Lawrence: `The Catholic Man: A Study', Boston, 1890,gives, in Paul, the poet, an imaginative study of the character of Mr. Lanier,with whom the author was intimately acquainted and to whom she was devoted. Turnbull, Francese L. (= Mrs. Lawrence T.): `Sidney Lanier: A Study',in Sladen's `Younger American Poets', New York, 1891, pp. 645-655. Urban, Francis: Music to Lanier's `A Ballad of Trees and the Master'. Von Sturmer, H. H.: `A Soldier-poet', `Excelsior' (Barbados) 1. 233-236, Walker, Geo. W.: `Quarterly Review of M. E. Church, South' (Macon, Ga.)7. 193-206, April, 1885. Ward, Wm. Hayes: `Sidney Lanier on Moral Purpose in Art', Ward, Wm. Hayes: `Sidney Lanier, Poet', `Century Magazine' 5. 816-821, Ward, Wm. Hayes: `Memorial', prefixed to `Poems of Sidney Lanier',edited by his wife, pp. xi-xl. Warner, Charles Dudley: `Letter at Unveiling of Poet's Bust at Macon, Ga.', Washington, Hugh V.: `Address on Accepting the Bust of Lanier forthe City of Macon, Ga.', October 17, 1890, `The Atlanta (Ga.) Constitution'of October 19, 1890. West, Charles N.: `Address before the Georgia Historical Society', Wilkinson, W. C.: `The Independent' (New York), September, 1886. Wilson, Heileman: `Fetter's Southern Magazine' (Louisville, Ky.) 2. 11-15, Wilson (J. G.) and Fiske (J.), eds.: `Appleton's Cyclopaediaof American Biography', New York, 1888, vol. iii., 613,has brief sketches of S. and C. Lanier. Wray, J. E.: `Song of the Chattahoochee', `Quarterly Reviewof M. E. Church, South' (Nashville), New Series, 16. 157-163, April, 1894. VII. Poetical Tributes Andrews, Maude Annulet: `Literary World' (Boston) 18. 184, June 11, 1887. Barbe, Waiteman: in his `Ashes and Incense', Philadelphia, 1892. Burroughs, Ellen: `Literary World' (Boston) 21. 40, February 1, 1890. Burton, Richard E.: Gilman's `Memorial', p. 12. Clark, Simeon Tupper: `The Buffalo (N. Y.) Courier', November, 1881. Colquitt, Mel R.: `The Period', Atlanta, Ga. Cowdin, Jasper Barnett: `Hopeset and Sunrise', `Southern Bivouac' Cummings, James: Gilman's `Memorial', pp. 13-17. Dandridge, Danske: in her `Joy and Other Poems', New York and London, 1888. Easter, Marguerite E.: in her `Clytie and Other Poems', Boston, 1891. Edwards, Harry S.: `The Atlanta (Ga.) Constitution' of October 19, 1890. Garland, Hamlin: `Southern Bivouac' (Louisville, Ky.) 2. 759, May, 1887. Gates, Mrs. Merrill E.: `Home Journal' (New York), April 16, 1890. Hayne, Paul Hamilton: `The Pole of Death', in `Poems' (Boston, 1882), p. 322. Hayne, Wm. H.: `Poem for the Unveiling of the Bust of S. L. at Macon, Ga., Hubner, Charles W.: `The Atlanta (Ga.) Constitution' of September 12, 1881. Lanier, Clifford: `Acknowledgment, To all who love S. L.', Reese, Lizette Woodworth: `Southern Bivouac' (Louisville, Ky.) 2. 488,January, 1887; `With a Copy of Lanier's Poems', `The Independent' (New York)44. 322, March 3, 1892. Roberts, Charles G. D.: `To the Memory of S. L.', in his `In Divers Tones', Scollard, Clinton: `Literary World' (Boston), vol. 18, May 14, 1886. Tabb, John B.: `To Sidney Lanier', in Gilman's `Memorial', p. 11; Thomas, Edith M.: Gilman's `Memorial', pp. 22-23. Turnbull, Francese E.: Gilman's `Memorial', pp. 18-21. [End of original text.] Other sources relating to Sidney Lanier: (No attempt has been made to be complete. This only serves Centennial Edition of the Works of Sidney Lanier (in 10 volumes),ed. Charles R. Anderson and others (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1945). Flute Concerto of Sidney Lanier, by Myrtle Whittemore The Life of Sidney Lanier, by Lincoln Lorenz (New York: Coward-McCann, 1935). A Living Minstrelsy: The Poetry and Music of Sidney Lanier,by Jane S. Gabin (Macon, Ga.: Mercer University Press, 1985). *Sidney Lanier, by Jack De Bellis (New York: Twayne Publishers, 1972). Sidney Lanier, by Edwin Mims (Boston & New York: Houghton, Mifflin & Co.,1905), also available as an etext: Project Gutenberg, February, 1998. *Sidney Lanier: A Biographical and Critical Study, by Aubrey Harrison Starke Sidney Lanier, Poet and Prosodist, by Richard Webb Sidney Lanier: The Man, the Poet, the Critic, by Edd Winfield Parks Letters of Sidney Lanier, Selections from His Correspondence, 1866-1881,ed. Henry W. Lanier (New York: Scribner's, 1899). Letters of Sidney Lanier to Col. John G. James, ed. Margaret Lee Wiley Some Reminiscences and Early Letters of Sidney Lanier,ed. George Herbert Clarke (Macon, Ga.: Burke, 1907). —* According to Mrs. Oliver at the Middle Georgia Historical Society, in Macon, Ga., patrons express special interest in these works.— The Johns Hopkins University has a large collection of Lanier materials.Cynthia Requardt, the Curator of Special Collections, has notedthat many visitors are more interested in his music than his poetry.Joan Grattan (Manuscripts) has confirmed that the above selectionsrepresent the most important materials on Lanier.The index to these materials is online, at gopher://musicbox.mse.jhu.edu/and more specifically at gopher://musicbox.mse.jhu.edu/00/mss/ms007.txt(as of 5 March 1998). Notes to the text: This text has been amended to include "The Marshes of Glynn",and some notes on the same (mostly drawn from the biography of Sidney Lanier,by Edwin Mims, 1905) that were not in the original. The Notes to the poems were originally in a section to themselves,between the Poems and the Bibliography. References to page numbers in the introduction have had amendedto include a reference to which part of the introduction that page is in. The text of some of the poems differs slightly in spelling and punctuationfrom the text in `Poems of Sidney Lanier'. No effort has been madeto make the texts conform, except where this text appeared to be in error. Changes to the text: Introduction: IV. Lanier's Poetry: Its Style: [ Of littles that large life compound,'*3* ] "The Revenge of Hamish", line 27: [ Drew leaping to-burn-ward; huskily rose ] "Notes: A Ballad of Trees and the Master": [ which inspired these intense lines, `Into the Wood my Master went', ] (It should also be noted that "A Ballad of Trees and the Master"has sometimes been published under the title "Into the Woods My Master Went".) Bibliography: IV: Uncollected Poems: [ One in Two: `Century Magazine' 12. 417, July, 1877 ] Various minor punctuation errors in the Bibliography have also been corrected. References to verses of scripture have been changed to modern form. ASCII does not allow for the easy use of accents. All instances of `Laus Mari(ae)' |