-- * Mr. Thayer puts it stronger: "As a master of melodious metre only Tennyson, and he not often, has equalled Lanier." Mr. F. F. Browne, Editor of `The Dial' (Chicago), compares the two poets in another aspect: "`The Symphony' of Lanier may recall some parts of `Maud'; but the younger poet's treatment is as much his own as the elder's is his own. The comparison of Lanier with Tennyson will, indeed, only deepen the impression of his originality, which is his most striking quality. It may be doubted if any English poet of our time, except Tennyson, has cast his work in an ampler mould, or wrought with more of freedom, or stamped his product with the impress of a stronger personality. His thought, his stand-point, his expression, his form, his treatment, are his alone; and through them all he justifies his right to the title of poet." -- Poems Life and Song If life were caught by a clarionet, [1] And a wild heart, throbbing in the reed, Should thrill its joy and trill its fret, And utter its heart in every deed, Then would this breathing clarionet Type what the poet fain would be; For none o' the singers ever yet Has wholly lived his minstrelsy, Or clearly sung his true, true thought, Or utterly bodied forth his life, Or out of life and song has wrought [11] The perfect one of man and wife; Or lived and sung, that Life and Song Might each express the other's all, Careless if life or art were long Since both were one, to stand or fall: So that the wonder struck the crowd, Who shouted it about the land: `His song was only living aloud, His work, a singing with his hand!' ____ 1868. Notes: Life and Song `Life and Song' is the fifth of a series of seven poems published under the general heading of `Street-cries', with the two stanzas following as an introduction: "Oft seems the Time a market-town Where many merchant-spirits meet Who up and down and up and down Cry out along the street "Their needs, as wares; one THUS, one SO: Till all the ways are full of sound: -- But still come rain, and sun, and snow, And still the world goes round." 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'.