Selected Poems of Sidney Lanier | Page 3

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Select Poems of Sidney Lanier
[Sidney Lanier: American (Georgia)
Poet, Musician, etc.; 1842-1881.] Edited by Morgan Callaway
[American (Southern U.S.) Scholar; 1862-1936.]
[Note on text: Italicized words are capitalised.
Lines longer than 78
characters are broken and the continuation is indented two spaces.
Some obvious errors may have been corrected. The "Notes" section has
been abolished, and the notes themselves appear with the poems,
instead of in a separate section.]
Select Poems of Sidney Lanier
Edited With an Introduction, Notes, and Bibliography
By Morgan
Callaway, Jr., Ph.D.
Associate Professor of English Philology in the
University of Texas, Formerly Fellow of the Johns Hopkins University;

Author of "The Absolute Participle in Anglo-Saxon"
[Amended to include "The Marshes of Glynn"]
To My Father
Preface
This edition of the `Select Poems of Sidney Lanier' is issued in 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 main upon Dr.
Ward's admirable `Memorial' prefixed to the `Poems of Sidney Lanier'
edited by his wife, though a few additional facts have been gleaned
here and there. For most* of the Bibliography down to 1888 I am
indebted to 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 instance acknowledged 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 ground of its
being Lanier's latest complete poem.* I believe all will admit that 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.
--
* Later opinion generally agrees that "The Marshes of Glynn" is
Lanier's greatest poem, and as this edition has no limitations of space, it
would be inappropriate to exclude it. Therefore it has been inserted
more or less in chronological order (in accordance with Callaway's
plan), with some comments. -- Alan Light, 1998.
--
In the Notes I have made rather copious quotations from poems
familiar to English scholars, because I hope that this book will 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 one to 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 otherwise I
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 letters as 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
I. A Brief Sketch of Lanier's Life
II. Lanier's Prose
Works
III. Lanier's Poetry: Its Themes
IV. Lanier's Poetry: Its Style

V. Lanier's Theory of Poetry
VI. Conclusion
Poems
Life and Song
Jones's Private Argyment
Corn
My
Springs
The Symphony
The Power of Prayer; or, The First
Steamboat up the Alabama Rose-morals
To ----, with a Rose
Uncle
Jim's Baptist Revival Hymn
The Mocking-bird
Song of the
Chattahoochee
The Revenge of Hamish
The Marshes of Glynn

Remonstrance
Opposition
Marsh Song -- At Sunset
A Ballad of
Trees and the Master
Sunrise
Bibliography
Select Poems of Sidney Lanier
Introduction
I. A Brief Sketch of Lanier's Life
(1842-1881)
Sidney Lanier has so recently passed