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 from us that it seems desirable briefly to recount the chief incidents of his life. This task is 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 family noted 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 court as 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 family distinguished for their love of oratory, music, and poetry. -- * For the full title of works cited see `Bibliography'. ** October 20, 1893, at Macon, Ga. --